Brau Union and Einride join forces to start electrifying the brewing company’s freight operations across Austria

This marks the first Austrian operations for Einride, and the latest expansion in the global HEINEKEN and Einride partnership, following cross-border operations that began in early 2024 between Germany and the Netherlands

Brau Union Österreich and freight technology company Einride announced their partnership in electrifying road freight operations across Austria. Initial operations kicked off in January, showcasing the next step for Brau Union Österreich in reducing CO2 emissions within their supply chain.

Routes for the first wave are now running fully electric between the Göss and Puntigam breweries, the Brau Union Österreich Hub Süd logistics center in Wundschuh to sales and partner warehouses in southern Austria. Utilizing eight vehicles as a first step, around 20 deliveries a day are now powered by electricity from renewable sources¹.

These e-trucks are estimated to save around 400 tons of CO2 over approximately 378,000 kilometers a year². In other words, this first wave in 2025 achieves an estimated emission reduction of about three percent³ of the full primary domestic distribution in Austria. This must be seen as an initial step towards the electrification of freight transport, which still faces challenges, including the availability of an extensive charging infrastructure and the current limitations of e-trucks for long-haul routes.

Partnership picks up speed in 2025

Following this initial wave of deployment, Brau Union Österreich and Einride will further expand the partnership with 20 more e-trucks, adding routes across Vienna, Upper Austria, Lower Austria and Styria, starting later in 2025. This will be supported by the full Einride platform, which includes the 28 electric vehicles4 and charging infrastructure at Hub Süd, all connected and optimized with intelligence from the AI powered Einride Saga operating system.

By the end of 2026 the forecast of the Einride Saga system is an estimated CO2 reduction of 1800 tons of CO₂⁵ or up to thirteen percent of Austria’s full primary domestic distribution.

With Einride, we have a competent partner at our side to take a step forward in the field of electric mobility. In order to advance our goal of reducing emissions in logistics, we are focusing on a variety of measures so that in the future we can use the right drive in more and more areas where we deliver the best beer, be it in the city, in the countryside or in the mountains.  - Harald Raidl, Supply Chain Director at Brau Union

For Einride, this Austrian partnership is an expansion of its partnership with HEINEKEN. A fleet of five digitally optimized electric vehicles has already been operating from the Dutch brewery Den Bosch to Duisburg in Germany since February 2024⁶. Once the second wave of operations is live later on, it will serve as the most extensive e-mobilization of trucks for primary distribution to distributors and retailers for the international HEINEKEN Group in Europe to date.

We are proud to deploy with Brau Union Österreich as our first customer in Austria. Not only are we reducing CO₂ emissions together, we are bringing more efficient operations that have a drastically lower noise pollution which create optimal conditions for drivers, operators, and communities. Expanding our partnership with HEINEKEN in Europe marks an exciting milestone in our shared goal to drive sustainable, efficient road freight and we look forward to deploying our technology further in the region. - René Steinhaus, VP DACH&Benelux at Einride

This extended collaboration builds on Einride’s proven end-to-end electric freight capacity services and contributes to the decarbonization of road freight in a critical part of our network. We are immensely proud of our teams at Brau Union Österreich for reaching this important first step - Arjen van der Woude, HEINEKEN’s Director Strategic Sourcing Supply Chain

******

1. https://www.brauunion.at/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Bescheinigung_AT_im-VORHINEIN_Brau-Union-Oesterreich-AG_20240104-1.pdf 
2. Estimate based on internal methodologies and industry-specific emissions factors.
3. Estimate based on internal methodologies and industry-specific emissions factors.
4. This will further increase the electronically driven share of our haulier partnership. The exact capacity utilization can only be quantified in daily operations. With the current 8 e-trucks, for example, around 29% of haulier transports in the Göss-Puntigam-Hub South region were already electrically powered in February. 
5. This corresponds to 7,376,922 kilometers covered by an average gasoline-powered car, calculated via: Greenhouse Gas Equivalencies Calculator | US EPA 
6. HEINEKEN announces first cross-border electric freight journey in partnership with Einride 
7. Unabhängiges Siegel bestätigt zum wiederholten Mal das Nachhaltigkeitsengagement der Brau Union Österreich - Brau Union | Online Presse-Center

Brau Union Österreich

Brau Union Österreich sells over 5.0 million HL of beer in a year - with over 20 beer brands, over 100 beer varieties, and ongoing innovations. The company stands for international premium brands such as Heineken and Desperados, the cider brands Strongbow and Stibitzer, top Austrian brands such as Gösser, Schwechater, the wheat beer brand Edelweiss and the non-alcoholic Schlossgold, as well as brands with strong regional significance such as Zipfer, Puntigamer, Wieselburger, Kaiser, Schladminger, Reininghaus, Villacher and Fohrenburger. 2,600 employees throughout Austria ensure that around 49,000 customers and millions of beer lovers throughout the country are supplied with beer. Brau Union Österreich was awarded the “GREEN BRAND” label by Green Brands for the first time in 2016 and has since been able to confirm the seal of approval in regular revalidations7. Brau Union Österreich has been part of the international HEINEKEN family since 2003. www.brauunion.at

Einride

Einride designs, develops, and deploys freight mobility technologies to accelerate the transition to sustainable transportation. Its platform includes connected electric and autonomous heavy-duty vehicles, charging infrastructure, and an intelligent freight operating system. Founded in 2016, Einride became the world’s first company to operate an autonomous, electric vehicle on a public road in 2019. Today, Einride operates one of the largest fleets of heavy-duty electric trucks servicing Global Fortune 500 companies across eight markets. For more information, please visit einride.tech.