LOS ANGELES, May 7 (Reuters) - Amazon.com ( AMZN ) on

Tuesday unveiled the first of a dozen Volvo electric big rigs it

plans to deploy this year to pick up cargo from the nation's

busiest container seaport in Southern California.

The e-commerce giant already has eight of those semi trucks

in use at the Los Angeles/Long Beach port complex, where every

so-called drayage truck must be zero-emissions by 2035.

The deployment is a first for Amazon ( AMZN ), extending its vehicle

electrification projects from ocean ports to customer doorsteps.

The effort is vital to the company's push to reach net-zero

carbon emissions by 2040.

So far, a little more than 1% of the 23,761 trucks that

serve the Los Angeles/Long Beach port complex are zero-emission

vehicles - including 201 electric rigs, Long Beach port

spokesman Lee Peterson said.

"Heavy-duty trucking is a particularly difficult area to

decarbonize," said Udit Madan, Amazon's ( AMZN ) vice president of

worldwide operations.

The company has rolled out more than 13,500 Rivian

electric cargo delivery vans across the country since 2022. The

transition to electric semi trucks will be a bigger lift,

because they haul heavier loads and their batteries require more

intensive charging infrastructure.

"There is no playbook," said Adam Baker, vice president of

global logistics for Amazon ( AMZN ). For now, the company is gathering

data on battery performance that will help determine how many

trucks will be needed.

The manufacturer of Amazon's ( AMZN ) electric drayage trucks

will continue working with the company and JAB Hunt,

which provides drivers for the rigs, throughout the deployment,

said Keith Brandis, vice president of partnerships and system

solutions at Volvo Trucks North America.

"Charging infrastructure is the long pole in the tent. We

have to get that right," Brandis said.

The ports, private companies and truck owners are racing to

build heavy-duty chargers to support the transition to

zero-emissions vehicles.

In the near term, Amazon's ( AMZN ) electric port trucks will charge

at an offsite facility operated by Forum Mobility, a startup

that counts Amazon's ( AMZN ) Climate Pledge fund among its early

investors.

Forum Mobility this week broke ground on a Port of Long

Beach high-speed charging depot that can serve 44 trucks

simultaneously. Amazon ( AMZN ) is the first customer for the site, which

will also be open to other drayage truckers, Forum Mobility CEO

Matt LeDucq said.