In addition to a central warehouse in Vantaa, Kesko’s grocery trade division has regional terminals around Finland to handle the transport of goods to some 1,100 K Group grocery stores and thousands of Kespro foodservice customers. Every day, these logistics centres dispatch some 700 loads to locations across the country.
Kesko aims to halve emissions from its own operations by the end of 2034. Transport fuel consumption is the most significant cause of emissions in Kesko’s own operations. Kesko is set to systematically reduce emissions by, for example, electrifying its transport fleet and switching to renewable fuels.
”We want to be a forerunner in the electrification of heavy vehicles. We intend to increase the number of electric trucks and vans to nearly 40 this year, to 70 in 2026, and to 200 by 2030,” says Jyrki Tomminen, Senior Vice President for Supply Chain Management and Logistics in Kesko’s grocery trade.
Kesko’s progress in electrification is outpacing that of the rest of the country: electric vehicles are expected to account for some 30% of Kesko’s grocery trade transport fleet by 2030. Meanwhile, according to a forecast by the Finnish Information Centre of Automobile Sector, electric vehicles are expected to account for 11% of all first registrations of heavy-duty trucks and 17% of medium-duty trucks in Finland in 2030.
Successful transition to electric transports enabled by a network of charging points
Electric trucks can only be utilised effectively once a network of charging points designed for heavy vehicles has been set up at Kesko’s logistic centres. Consequently, Kesko is building charging points for heavy vehicles at all its grocery trade logistic centres, for a total investment of nearly 10 million euros.
Kesko’s own K-Lataus will be handling the construction and management of the charging systems. The electricity used for EV charging will be renewable.
Charging points for heavy vehicles are already available at Kesko’s central warehouse in Hakkila, Vantaa and the regional terminals in Seinäjoki and Tampere. New charging points will be set up at the regional terminals in Turku, Oulu, Jyväskylä and Mikkeli later this year.
The network of charging points will enable regular traffic with EV trucks. K Group electric trucks can currently be spotted around the distribution areas for the Vantaa central warehouse and Tampere terminal and between the two cities. Later this year, electric trucks will be introduced in the Oulu, Seinäjoki, Jyväskylä, Mikkeli and Turku areas. Electric vans are currently used for home deliveries in online grocery in the Helsinki capital region, Turku and Tampere.
The number of NGVs also growing
In addition to electricity, low emission powertrain options for vehicles include biogas and hydrogen. Kesko will be using 17 biogas vehicles for its goods transports this year alongside EVs.
”We intend to increase the number of natural gas vehicles closer to 40 by the year 2030. We are also monitoring the progress made in hydrogen vehicles and their charging infrastructure,” says Tomminen.
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