ISP WightFibre Starts Transitioning Fleet to Electric Vehicles

Broadband ISP WightFibre, which is currently deploying a new gigabit-capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network across 80,000 premises on the Isle of Wight (South Coast of Hampshire, England), has started a programme to switch their vehicle fleet to electric (inc. hybrid electric) with the arrival of several new cars and vans.

A number of UK network operators, with the biggest one being BT (Openreach), have already begun to adopt electric vehicles and WightFibre is no different. The operator, as part of efforts to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions, has committed to achieving an “all-electric fleet” by 2026 (the company’s electricity is also being purchased on a green tariff).

The process for this transition started in 2021, and they recently received their first vehicles – 2 full electric and 4 hybrid electric vans. Judging by the pictures, the cars they’ve received are based on the first-generation Kia e-Niro series, which tends to cost upwards of £32,000 – usually coming in both a regular and long-range version (bigger battery). No pictures of the new vans were shown, so we’re not sure what they’ve gone with for those.

We suspect their EVs will probably work quite well on the Isle of Wight, since it’s entire land area is only about 380.7 km². The operator currently expects their rollout of full fibre broadband to reach 60,000 homes by the end of 2022, with the remainder now due to be completed by the end of 2023 (78,000 premises).