Boortmalt using electric truck for malt deliveries to breweries

Malt firm Boormalt switches to electric truck

A malt firm says it is aiming to make a big reduction in its carbon footprint by using a 44-tonne electric truck.

Boortmalt said drivers would deliver malt from its base in Bury St Edmunds, in Suffolk, to breweries using a Volvo FH electric articulated lorry.

The firm anticipates reducing the carbon footprint of its UK supply chain by "at least 75%".

A freight company which has supplied the lorry says it the first of its kind to be used in East Anglia.

'Colossal'

Freight company Bartrums, which is based in Eye, has supplied the lorry and its operations director Tremayne Johnson said the battery on the 666-horsepower lorry had a 200-mile range when the vehicle was fully loaded.

Driver Tom McNally with Boortmalt's new electric delivery truck

Mr Johnson said the battery could be fully charged in about four hours by a "colossal" 150-kilowatt charger at Boortmalt's base.

He said it would "probably take a week" to charge the truck using the kind of seven-kilowatt home charger electric car drivers used.

'Flagship project'

"The arrival of this fully electric Volvo FH is a significant milestone and is also one of the very first electric articulated bulk vehicles in the UK, the very first in East Anglia and it's also a first within the malt industry," he said.

He said Bartrums had leased the truck, which would cost about £340,000 to buy, from Volvo and supplied it to Boortmalt as part of a deal.

"The truck will be making deliveries to customers in East Anglia and beyond from its base... as well as bringing barley to site from our network of suppliers and stores," said a Boortmalt spokesman.

"We anticipate that up to 80,000 km per year will now be driven by this vehicle in place of diesel, reducing the carbon footprint of our UK supply chain for those kilometres by at least 75%."