Clicks electric truck fleet targets fuel savings and competitive edge
By Tarryn-Leigh Solomons
Clicks Group says its move into heavy-duty electric trucks is expected to cut operating costs and reduce its exposure to diesel-price increases.
Speaking exclusively to Cape Business News following the launch at its Montague Gardens distribution centre on Monday, 7 September, Clicks Group CEO Bertina Engelbrecht said the business had already seen the benefits of electric vehicles through its pharmaceutical distribution operations.
The retailer has secured 30 SANY heavy-duty electric trucks and invested more than R65 million in solar photovoltaic generation, battery storage and charging infrastructure.
Its Montague Gardens distribution centre is expected to operate a fully electric truck fleet by the end of October, which Clicks says will make it the first retail distribution centre in Africa to do so.
Engelbrecht said the decision was based on both cost and operational considerations.
“We could see it would create for us a competitive advantage,” she said.
Clicks had already introduced electric vehicles through pharmaceutical wholesaler United Pharmaceutical Distributors (UPD), which gave the group confidence to extend the model to retail distribution.
“It was actually the incredible success that we saw, first of all, from going with renewables and then, secondly, at UPD,” Engelbrecht said.
Fuel costs strengthen the case
Clicks expects the 30 trucks to save about 780 000 litres of diesel a year.
The group projects annual fuel savings of between R20 million and R25 million, with maintenance costs expected to fall by another R2 million to R3 million.
Engelbrecht said limiting exposure to fuel-price movements was an important part of the commercial case.
“There are so many shocks globally that impact the fuel price,” she said.
“When you can begin to control that, it is so much better for you.”
She said the benefit was already evident in parts of the business where lower diesel dependence reduced the need for fuel surcharges.
“There’s no fuel surcharge that’s going into the cost of their products and services,” Engelbrecht said.
While the vehicles carry a higher upfront cost, she said Clicks assesses investments over several years.
“We never look at only a single year. We look at the impact over multiple years,” she said.
Fleet target brought forward
Clicks had initially aimed for 30% of its truck fleet to be electric by the end of 2029.
It now expects to have 68 electric trucks on the road by the end of 2027, representing about 62% of its current fleet, and is targeting more than 90% by September 2028.
“Once you start doing it, you see the benefits and everybody in the company just goes faster at it,” Engelbrecht said.
Fourteen of the new vehicles will operate from Montague Gardens, which services about 290 stores, while another 14 will be based at Centurion, servicing around 566 stores.
KwaZulu-Natal is expected to follow by September 2027.
Commercial fleets could drive wider EV adoption
With Transport Month taking place in October, Engelbrecht said greater uptake of electric commercial vehicles could help bring prices down.
“The greater the adoption is, the more the prices come down,” she said.
“The more the people who move goods adopt EVs, the more the price will actually come down.”
She said larger commercial fleets could help create the scale needed to make electric vehicles more affordable over time.
“That will mean that EVs for you and me will become available at a more accessible price point, because the bigger ones have come first,” Engelbrecht said.
Of the more than R65 million invested in supporting infrastructure, R41 million has gone into battery energy storage systems at two distribution centres.
The SANY trucks have 318kWh batteries, a range of about 380km to 400km per charge and a payload capacity of 11.5 tonnes. They can charge from 20% to 80% in about 30 minutes.
