Amazon unveils first electric seaport trucks amid push to slash emissions

Amazon.com on Tuesday will unveil the first of a dozen Volvo electric big rigs it plans to deploy this year to pick up cargo from the nation's busiest container seaport in southern California. The e-commerce giant said it already has eight of those semi trucks in use at the Los Angeles/Long Beach port complex, where every so-called drayage truck must be zero-emissions by 2035.The deployment is a first for Amazon, extending its vehicle electrification projects across its land-based logistics network that stretches from ocean ports to customer doorsteps. The effort is vital to the company's push to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2040.So far, a little more than 1% of the 23,761 trucks that serve the Los Angeles/Long Beach port complex are zero-emission vehicles - including 201 electric rigs, Long Beach port spokesman Lee Peterson said. "Heavy-duty trucking is a particularly difficult area to decarbonize," said Udit Madan, Amazon's vice president of worldwide operations.