IKEA Australia is now trailing electric tuk-tuks within its delivery fleet to deliver small furniture within 10km of its Tempe store in Sydney.
The famous flat-pack store aims to have a zero emission delivery fleet by 2025.
IKEA has trialed similar concepts across Europe including cargo bikes in Madrid, solar bikes in London, barges down the Seine in Paris, and now electric tuk-tuks in Australia.
The zero-emission three-wheeled bikes will be powered by a 9kWh swappable battery. The new additions will be named Tük-se and Tack-se, with ‘tack’ meaning ‘thanks’ in Swedish.
For those you aren’t too familiar with a tuk-tuk, the three-wheelers are primarily used in southeast Asia as taxis.
The tuk-tuk IKEA uses can hold up to a 500kg load.
“Working closely with our transport partner ANC Delivers, we are excited to trial and test innovative methods that help get us closer to our goal of 100% zero emission deliveries,” said IKEA Tempe manager Tiffany Mosura-Lesnock.
“We know that the congested roads of metro Sydney will benefit enormously from the introduction of electric tuk tuks in our delivery fleet, and we also hope it will inspire and drive positive change for the whole industry to meet the needs of people today without compromising the planet and needs of future generations.”
The trial will run from from May 16, 2023 to August 16, 2023.
Suburbs included in the trial span from Sydney Airport to Bondi, Ashfield and Mortdale.