Leeds health trust adds first EV to its fleet

Working in partnership with Leeds City Council, Leeds Teaching Hospitals has launched its first electric vehicle.

The new electric vehicle, a Nissan e-NV200 van, will be used for a range of tasks, including delivering post and small goods around the different hospital sites in the city.

Leeds Teaching Hospitals has around 30 vehicles which are essential to delivering many of its services between sites and this is an important step forward in making the fleet more sustainable.

The van took its first trip on Clean Air Day, a nationwide campaign where the public are encouraged to leave their cars at home or switch off the engine where possible.

As well as being more environmentally friendly and reducing emissions, the van will also allow the Trust to benefit from fuel savings.

It is one of six vehicles supplied by Leeds City Council to the Trust, the remaining five of which are diesel.

Trials of the electric vehicle have already been conducted for security and pathology services at Leeds Teaching Hospitals and this has seen great success, with more vehicles set to be implemented in the future.

Chris Ayres, head of facilities said: “The new van is the first step in our aim to have 20 per cent of our fleet electric by 2018 and we hope to continue to increase our charging points and the fleet.

“It’s great to be working in partnership with Leeds City Council and this enables us to contribute to the overall aim for Leeds to be a low sulphur city by 2020.”