Green power on test for county council fleet

Northumberland County Council has begun testing electric vans as it looks to ways of future proofing its fleet.

 

After declaring a climate emergency and pledging to make the county carbon neutral by 2030, the council is doing all it can to reduce emissions. This includes the replacement of its fleet of small diesel vans with electric vehicles.

 

It’s now taken a new electric van on loan to see how they perform against the current vehicles, which are used to support the delivery of a wide range of services including the council’s highways, street lighting and neighbourhood services teams.

 

The Nissan e-NV200 on test has a range of up to 187 miles and can be rapidly charged in around an hour.

 

Councillor Glen Sanderson, Cabinet Member for Environment and Local Services, said: “We’re fully committed to bringing in a cleaner and greener fleet of vehicles and we’ll be looking closely at how this test vehicle performs.

 

“We’ve got 66 vans of this size which are due to be replaced over the next couple of years and are investing heavily in electrifying as much as our fleet as we can and getting in place all the related infrastructure such as charging points.

“A lot of work will need to be done in the coming years on renewing our fleet and exploring new technology so that we can green our fleet as the technology develops.”

Pictured: Paul Jones, Director of Local Services, Cllr Glen Sanderson and Jamie Grainger from fleet services.