IKEA, Volvo Trucks and Raben Group join forces in Poland to accelerate zero emission transport

IKEA Industry, Volvo Trucks, and Raben Group have signed a collaboration agreement on zero-emission heavy transport in Poland. IKEA will introduce heavy electric Volvo trucks for internal transport flows at two IKEA Industry factories in Poland, which will be operated by Raben Group. The learnings from the pilot will be used for the electrification of transport operations at scale in a larger transport network.

IKEA is a large transport buyer with more than 2 million shipments worldwide per year. To reach the IKEA strategic climate goal for product transport to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by -70% per shipment, electrification of heavy-duty vehicles is critical. Electrification of transport is one of the solutions to address the root cause of climate change.

Now IKEA Industry, Volvo Trucks and Raben Group, join forces in Poland to deploy zero-emission Volvo FM electric trucks in the transport system. The trucks will be used to handle the internal flow of goods between two IKEA Industry factories located 14 kilometres apart in Zbąszynek and Babimost in western Poland.

The trucks will be charged at the IKEA Industry production facilities using renewable electricity from an external source. The first electric truck will begin operation during autumn and the plan is to expand the fleet based on the learnings from the pilot.

“We are happy to announce this collaboration which aims to accelerate our shift to more sustainable road transports. This project enables us to explore and learn about the challenges and opportunities in the deployment of electric transport operations at scale and its interdependencies in a larger transport network”, says Małgorzata Dobies-Turulska, Managing Director of IKEA Industry Zbąszynek.

“For Raben Group, this project is the first step in the process of decarbonizing our own fleet driving towards the ambitious CO2 reduction plans recently scientifically approved by Science Based Targets (SBTi) experts. This is also an important project for the full truckload transportation process. We are one of the firsts logistics companies in Europe to undertake the ambitious challenge of running an electric truck working with a 24-ton trailer.” – says Piotr Banasiak, Managing Director at Raben Transport, and added –” The future of electrified heavy transport starts today.”

“We are excited to work together with IKEA and Raben Group towards more sustainable truck transports. IKEA and Raben both have ambitious climate goals just like Volvo. This project will give us valuable insights and constitutes a good basis for an extended collaboration in the future”, says Robert Grozdanovski, SVP Europe Central East & East, Volvo Trucks.