Electric vehicles are an important topic for the future, including in the wholesale sector. By joining the international EV100 initiative in September 2017, METRO has committed itself to actively promoting the use of electric vehicles within the company and for its customers. The first charging stations have now been installed on the METRO site in collaboration with Tesla.
It's the year 2030. In the car park in front of the wholesale store, customers' cars are plugged into charging points at electric filling stations, while the owners do their shopping. The pumps are powered with solar energy generated by panels on the roof of the store. An electric delivery vehicle turns the corner silently, while a customer manager climbs into his electric staff car …
This scenario is still a futuristic dream. But it is a fascinating topic, and supporters in many areas are working intensively to make electric vehicles the norm. One of them is Olaf Schulze, who is responsible for energy management at METRO. Together with the Management Board, colleagues and partners like Tesla, he is promoting the use of electric vehicles in the company and for customers.
The aim of this initiative Electric Vehicle 100 is to promote electromobility through contributions from the companies, like for example installing electric charging stations for their customers and employees, until the year 2030. The founder of this initiative is the Climate Group, an international association of regions and businesses who profess their support for an active climate policy. The Climate Week NYC was founded by the Climate Group in 2009 and is one of the largest international summits driving climate action. In addition to METRO another nine international companies, among them Unilever, IKEA Group, Vattenfall and Deutsche Post DHL, have joined the initiative.
METRO has a clearly formulated objective: by joining the international EV100 initiative in September 2017, the company has committed itself to actively promoting the transition to electric vehicles. The detailed road map includes plans to develop effective infrastructure at the METRO sites, and to install more than 200 charging points by 2019. Olaf Schulze is confident when he says, “In the same way that we expect big shopping centres to have Wi-Fi these days, in the near future, charging stations will be a key service. We want to offer our customers all over the world this extra added value.”
