Nissan and British Gas launch UK's largest electric van trial
Sun 01 December 2013
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Nissan together with British Gas have launched the United Kingdom’s largest electric commercial vehicle trial. The pilot phase sees 28 Nissan e-NV200 vans being tested to gauge the future viability of 100% electric vehicle technology as part of British Gas’ fleet of 13,000 home service vans.
The pilot is being conducted nationwide from November 2013 until April 2014 to assess the vans' capabilities during winter and how they perform in typical British Gas home services daily usage patterns. Run in collaboration with Hitachi Capital Commercial Vehicle Solutions and Gateshead College, the pilot will see the four strategic partners working together during this testing period.
Colin Marriott, General Manager for Fleet at British Gas, said: “We’re committed to leading the industry in reducing the amount of carbon and other harmful tail pipe emissions emitted by our 13,000 strong vehicle fleet. This trial, the largest of its kind in the UK, is a great opportunity for us to understand how the Nissan e-NV200 vans perform during the winter as we move towards our goal of having at least 10% of our fleet running on electricity by 2015."
Gateshead College delivered training to the British Gas drivers to ensure they are fully-briefed in how to drive and live with the Nissan e-NV200 and will generate accurate total cost of ownership modelling to compare this technology with internal combustion engine drivetrains. Nissan has been globally piloting the e-NV200 for two years ahead of the van going on sale to the public next year.
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