Coca-Cola and Others Expand To Greener Horizons

It was announced this week that Coca-Cola will purchase a record number 120 hybrid trucks this year from Eaton, their largest sale to North America to date. This number is up from the twenty Coca-Cola purchased in 2007 for its test run of the hybrid electric drivetrain that proved successful. The test boasting a decreased 32% in emissions led to this purchase with 120 trucks expected to be added to the Coca-Cola fleet before the end of 2008.

This turns out to be just one of the efforts Coca-Cola is making to go green in its day-to-day operations. On top of Coca-Cola’s fleet of diesels and their use of the new hybrid electrics on order and in the test field, a Coca-Cola subsidiary, Montevideo Refrescos SRL is using an electric truck from Zero Air Pollution (ZAP), called the Xebra. The Xebra is estimated to run as fast as 40 mph. Each charge produces enough power to travel 25 miles until the next charge.

Montevideo uses 30 Xebra’s for the last leg of product distribution. The larger diesel- or hybrid-electric trucks deliver to a preliminary distribution hub and the Xebra’s pick up from that point to complete product deliveries in more congested areas.

In addition to Coca-Cola testing out the new Xebra motors, other companies are using vehicles manufactured by ZAP as well for similar distribution needs. UPS is leasing 42 ZAP vehicles for use in Northern California in their effort to go green. The methodology is the same in that the ZAP vehicle is used for the final delivery in the handling of small parcels. Meanwhile in Las Vegas ZAP carries Domino’s pizza to its customers.

Prior to the announcement of the sale with Coca-Cola, Eaton announced it ranked second on Corporate Responsibility Officer (CRO) Magazine’s 100 Best Corporate Citizens 2008 list.