Openreach Trials 100% Electric Vans for their UK Engineers

Broadband and phone engineers working for Openreach in several parts of the United Kingdom, including Leeds and Birmingham, have begun using 100% electric vans as part of a new trial. Currently 15 vehicles are included in the national pilot and charging points have been installed at various buildings (exchanges, homes etc.).

The new vehicles, which sport a special design to spell out their green credentials, took to the roads this week. All of this supports BT’s pledge to be a net zero emission business by 2045 and they have a goal to reduce the carbon emissions of their customers by at least three times BT’s end-to-end carbon footprint by 2020.

The announcement doesn’t offer any information on the vehicles themselves, although the smaller vans we’ve seen all appear to be made by Renault (looks like the KANGOO Z.E. 33 Van or Maxi Van). The KANGOO Z.E. 33 costs from around £23,000 (after government grants) and is estimated to have a real world driving range of 124 miles in the summer (falling to just 74 miles for the large MASTER Z.E van that costs from £56,000).

The limited range does rather restrict their utility to staying within a smaller urban area, although EVs are improving at such a pace that it won’t be long before we see similar vans that can do double or more this.

Clive Selley, CEO of Openreach, said:

“These first electric vans are an important milestone on our journey to a low carbon future. The potential for environmental benefit, if we can successfully integrate electric vans into our fleet, is enormous. Through this pilot we will learn practical lessons about the best way to use and charge the vehicles and develop systems which would help us make far greater use of electric vehicles in the future.

We’re absolutely committed to decarbonise our business and doing our bit to cut air pollution, so this pilot will be key to making that happen. The number of vans may be small in comparison to our fleet, but the lessons we’ll learn will be critical to making any larger transformation a reality.”