Frito-Lay Aims To Use Over 700 EVs In Its Delivery Fleet By The End Of 2023
Diehard Cheetoh dust fans who want a little more greenness with tho go with that orange color can rejoice: Popular snack company Frito-Lay has announced a nationwide initiative to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions. Instead of relying solely on traditional trucks to shuttle snacks all over the country, Frito-Lay has decided to include over 700 electric vehicles in its operations by the end of the year. This initiative follows a successful test trial that Frito-Lay launched in Texas on a smaller scale, where it implemented 40 zero-emissions electric trucks in the Dallas Forth-Worth area.
At least some of the fleet's vehicles are linked with a name that Twitter users know well. None other than the Tesla Semi, which was a highly anticipated product that billionaire Elon Musk announced as early as 2017, is part of the snack brand's plans. Six years after that announcement, PepsiCo, Frito-Lay's parent company, is among Tesla's first customers, and the first deliveries made with the eco-friendly Tesla Semi may feature Frito-Lay products. On just one charge, a Tesla Semi truck can go up to 425 miles, which is 75 short of the mileage previously boasted by Musk.
Frito-Lay's electric trucks are part of a larger plan
For over a decade now, Frito-Lay has made a concerted effort to be more environmentally friendly in how it transports products. As early as 2011, the company began to use compressed natural gas vehicles on the route. Frito-Lay's ambition to be more sustainable has only grown, as it has a goal to attain net-zero emissions by 2040. According to the Frito-Lay website, a renewable energy vehicle fleet will result in savings equal to the output of 8,000 natural gas homes.
However, the sustainable initiatives of Frito-Lay don't end with just how its products are delivered: The chip company is working on the sustainability of the actual products and has a goal to make its chip bags recyclable, compostable, biodegradable, or reusable in some way by 2025. Chief Sustainability Officer, David Allen, states in a video on Instagram that the "vision is to create a world where packaging need not become waste."