Amazon has announced plans to expand its zero-emission deliveries by adding more than 150 new electric trucks to their fleet over the next 18 months.

The company has described the fleet order as ‘the UK’s largest ever’ for electric trucks.

Once fully operational, these new eHGVs are expected to transport over 300 million packages each year with no exhaust emissions.

Future of Roads Minister Lilian Greenwood said: “Business has a crucial role to play in decarbonising our roads, and that’s why it’s fantastic to see Amazon place the UK’s biggest ever order of electric trucks, supported in part by the Government’s £200m ‘Zero Emission HGV and Infrastructure Demonstrator’ project."

The trucks will have a range of 310 miles (500km) on full charge and Amazon will be installing charging infrastructure at key UK sites to support the expansion.

This includes 360kW electric charging points capable of charging the 40-tonne Mercedes-Benz trucks from 20 to 80 per cent in just over an hour.

For the first time in the UK, Amazon has also launched rail deliveries at scale and will make the most of the fully electric West Coast Main Line.

This service will deliver products picked from stations close to local Amazon delivery fulfilment centres and will also help to reduce road traffic.

The company said it will transport products from stations and its wider fulfilment centre to ferry ports believing this will also give small and medium-sized UK businesses easier access to European markets.

Amazon’s on-foot delivery service has additionally been launched as part of the company’s zero-emission strategy in partnership with Central Hackney, Westminster and Islington boroughs.

The company aims to reduce motorised deliveries and increase zero-emission deliveries across central London.

Customers in the area can now receive orders via on-foot deliveries as Amazon uses restockable carts supplied by strategically placed vans.

According to Amazon, now over 70% of London's Congestion Charge zone is serviced by electric vans, e-cargo bikes and on-foot deliveries.

Nicola Fyfe, EU VP of Amazon Logistics believes these new initiatives will help Amazon move more customer orders across our fulfilment network with zero exhaust emissions

“Decarbonising our transport network is key in helping us achieve our goal to reach net-zero carbon emissions across our operations by 2040 and today’s announcement is an exciting and major step forward for us in this mission,” said Nicola.