Mitie has reached another landmark in its electric vehicle (EV) rollout, having taken delivery of its 250th EV. The Nissan e-NV200 van will be based at Heathrow Airport and joins the 200 electric cars and 49 electric vans already in Mitie’s fleet.
The milestone 250th electric vehicles demonstrates Mitie’s commitment to switch 20 per cent of its small van and car fleet to electric by the end of 2020. Mitie marked its 100th EV at the end of October and has since accelerated its rollout, resulting in 150 more electric cars and vans joining the fleet in less than three months. With 400 more vehicles already on order and set for delivery in the first quarter of 2020, Mitie is well on track to meet its 20 per cent by 2020 commitment.
The van is not the first electric vehicle Mitie has deployed onto the Heathrow contract. It joins the 16 other electric cars and vans the company already uses on site. Mitie has focused on upgrading its vehicles based at the airport to electric to support the ambitious Heathrow 2.0 Sustainability Strategy, which includes a goal to establish an airside ultra-low emissions zone by 2025 and a target to become a zero-carbon airport as quickly as possible.
However, while Mitie’s rollout continues at pace, the need for more charge points – both on-street residential and rapid chargers – and the lack of availability of larger vans remain key barriers to EV uptake. As signatories of the EV100 commitment, Mitie has pledged to convert its entire fleet to electric by 2030. However, until government and local authorities make improvements to the UK’s charge point network and manufacturers improve vehicle availability and model range, these issues remain major blockers for the UK’s EV transition.
