AstraZeneca partners with Volvo Cars

Volvo Cars' rapid transition to electric cars and strong sustainability focus are two key factors in why AstraZeneca has chosen to return to Volvo Cars when offering its employees the opportunity to drive new and innovative cars.

Just like Volvo Cars, AstraZeneca has roots in Sweden. It all started when a group of Swedish doctors and pharmacists came together to form Astra AB in 1913, with the goal of changing and improving healthcare. The company has continued to expand since then, and in 1999 they merged with the British pharmaceutical company Zeneca, and together they formed AstraZeneca, which today has over 80,000 employees worldwide.

Sustainability and safety are key priorities

Sustainability is part of AstraZeneca’s organizational DNA, embedded across their value chain. The company has adopted science-based net zero targets and, as part of their decarbonization strategy, they are taking action to address the greenhouse (GHG) emissions from their company car fleet. They aim to transition to a fully electric vehicle fleet (EV) wherever possible by the end of 2025. AstraZeneca found a match in Volvo Cars to support the EV transition.

For Volvo Cars, sustainability and safety are at the core of our business. We aim to be a pioneer in protecting people and the planet by working towards climate neutrality, embracing the circular economy, and conducting business responsibly. We are committed to leading our industry’s decarbonization, as we aim to reach net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2040. Not only by phasing out ICE production and achieving full electrification by 2030, but also by addressing emissions across our value chain. We currently have four fully electric car models in our portfolio, with more planned for the future. And as always, safety is a cornerstone, which has made us one of the leaders in the field.

“We are a science-led organization committed to driving deep decarbonization to address the climate crisis. Over 20% of our direct greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are due to the AstraZeneca vehicle fleet. Transitioning to a fully electric fleet is key to us achieving our goal of reducing our directly controlled GHG emissions – Scope 1 and 2 – by 98% by 2026,” says Juliette White, Vice President Global Sustainability and SHE, AstraZeneca.

Diverse workforce across many markets

AstraZeneca currently has a global fleet of around 20,000 company cars. The majority of the cars are used by sales representatives who need to use the car daily, while others are driven by staff as part of their salary benefits at the company. With such a wide range of professional roles and needs, it will be interesting to see which of our electric car models are the most popular among employees.

“AstraZeneca selected Volvo Cars as one of our preferred fleet partners following a detailed sourcing analysis. Both companies share bold ambitions for fleet electrification: AstraZeneca’s goal is to have a fully electric car fleet globally wherever feasible by end of 2025, and Volvo Cars aims to become a fully electric car company by 2030. Volvo Cars’ expanded range of electric car models meets AstraZeneca’s electric vehicle requirements in many markets,” says Natasa Vidmar, Chief Procurement Officer, AstraZeneca.

Volvo Cars' history with AstraZeneca

This will not be the first time that Volvo Cars and AstraZeneca have collaborated with each other. Collaboration between the companies goes back all the way to the 1980s. AstraZeneca, which then went by the name Astra AB, reached out to Volvo Cars with a request to have a single point of contact for their global fleet collaboration with Volvo Cars.

This, in turn, led us at Volvo Cars to create a central fleet team that we call Global Major Accounts, which is still active today. Since the first agreement with AstraZeneca was signed, we have collaborated on and off for many years, and today, we have a stronger bond than ever.

Our Global Major Accounts team has continued to grow since our first collaboration with AstraZeneca, and we now help many global companies that need an international fleet framework agreement in more than two markets.

"Volvo Cars has extensive experience working with fleet customers, everything from small local companies with just a few employees to large multinational corporations, and at Volvo Cars we pride ourselves on being able to support all companies, regardless of size, with their fleet needs. Both through our colleagues in each local market and from a central perspective. And we are especially happy to have AstraZeneca as an international account back as a customer, given our long history together," says Joanne Machin, Director Global Major Accounts team at Volvo Cars.