Ikea Goes Hybrid, Trading Skodas for Civics
June 12, 2007

Swedish retailer Ikea will convert its entire company car fleet in the U.K. to hybrids as a prelude to a possible company-wide shift to greener vehicles, the Financial Times in London reports.

Ikea’s move is significant on a number of fronts:

*the switch will make Ikea Britain’s first big private sector company to change its entire company car fleet to greener vehicles;

* the move is a significant one for the growing market for alternative-fuel cars, given the home furnishing group’s size and global reach;

* the effort is a coup for Honda, which has seen rival Toyota achieve global dominance in hybrids. The cars will be billboards for Honda as the back of the cars will read: “This is a Hybrid company car from Ikea. Ikea’s business will have an overall positive impact on the environment";

* other companies are sure to follow suit as Ikea racks up image points and economic savings.

Ikea said it would trade its Skoda company cars for Honda Civic hybrids by next year in a pilot program that Ikea is considering extending to other countries. Honda will supply 50 Civic hybrids this year and deliver another 20 next year.

Ikea’s switch is part of a company-wide push to reduce its carbon-dioxide emissions by 9 percent by 2010. There’s also an economic factor: low-emission cars in the U.K. that achieve 61 miles per gallon, will incur a much reduced road tax and are exempt from paying charges to enter the congestion zone in central London.

“The economics of the change have come out quite well,” Charlie Browne, Ikea’s U.K/ environmental manager told the Financial Times. He said the company is also looking at using electric vehicles on a trial basis for home delivery from one of its stores.

Posted by Michelle Krebs at 7:19 AM under Commentary , Companies , Technology | Comments (0) | digg this | Seed Newsvine