The company’s commitment to electrifying its fleet by 2025 is five years earlier than its previous commitment and is well ahead of the 2030 deadline set by the UK Government. The order from Vauxhall is the largest electric vehicle order for a commercial fleet in the UK and adds to the 1,000 EVs purchased last Summer. The company has also introduced plans to never purchase another internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicle.
All 3,000 electric vehicles will be on the road by 2022. While engineers can volunteer to have the new vans during the rollout, the company is prioritising high pollution areas to help lower emissions.
British Gas engineers will install all chargers at engineer homes and is accelerating EV adoption in the UK for homes and businesses with charger installs and innovative EV tariffs. The company is currently increasing the EV engineer workforce through training existing engineers, recruiting new engineers, and creating 1,000 new engineering apprenticeships by the end of 2022.
“Everyone needs to act now to lower carbon emissions and help the UK reach net zero” said Chris O’Shea, Chief Executive of Centrica. “We are leading from the front by not only lowering emissions for our customers and our communities, but by lowering our own emissions, and by increasing the speed at which we do this. Fully electrifying our fleet will make a big difference. At the same time, we are helping our customers make the switch to electric and working with motor manufacturers such as Vauxhall on services and solutions for their EV customers such as charge points, infrastructure and innovative EV tariffs with cheaper charging at night and free EV miles.We look forward to continuing to work in partnership with the Government to create the new jobs our country needs as we all seek to build back greener.”
UK Transport Secretary Grant Shapps added that it’s encouraging to see that one of Britain’s best-known brands is leading the way with the largest commercial EV fleet in the UK.
“This is a huge step as we build back greener, lower our carbon footprint and deliver better air quality up and down the country – with more zero-emission models of cars and vans on the market than ever before” said Mr Shapps. “There has never been a better time for drivers and businesses to make the switch.”
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