An Amazon electric heavy-duty truck in San Bernardino, Calif. (Amazon Photo) Amazon is bulking up its fleet of electric vehicles beyond the delivery vans

Amazon.com on Tuesday will unveil 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 said it already has eight of those semi trucks in use at the Los Angeles/Long Beach port complex,

Amazon is deploying nearly 50 new heavy-duty electric trucks across Southern California to haul shipments and customer packages. Why it matters: It's part of the company's ambitious goal of going carbon-neutral by 2040 — and a major test of big electric trucks' capabilities.

Amazon is deploying 50 battery-electric heavy-duty trucks in California, which it claims is the largest such fleet in the country. The company says the new trucks represent an important step in its mission to eliminate pollution from its global operations — even as its carbon emissions have spiked in recent years.