Over the next month, a fleet of EVs including the Nissan Leaf, Peugeot iOn, the Renault Kangoo Z.E. and the Vauxhall Ampera PHEV will be trialled by four organisations and operators at Heathrow.
In addition to Heathrow Airport Ltd, which supports a potential switch to zero-emission ground based vehicles, British Airways, LSG SkyChefs and Gate Gourmet will be using the EVs in their fleets to better understand their suitability or otherwise for their operations.
Following a detailed assessment of vehicles’ technologies last year, the consultancy STS, which manages a Heathrow Clean Vehicles Partnership (CVP) and which is coordinating the new EV trials, recommended greater use of EVs at Heathrow to reduce life cycle CO2 emissions and as part of a NOx emissions reduction strategy across the airport. Almost 700 electric baggage tugs are already in use there, and 10% of Heathrow’s airside vehicles are already electric.
The Clean Vehicle Partnership facilitates collaborative working amongst Heathrow fleet operators and provides advice, guidance and training to reduce emissions.
The Head of Electric Vehicle Programme at Renault UK, Andy Heiron, commented: “With around 600 ‘conventional’ Kangoo vans already in service at Heathrow we know this van is well adapted to airport use and are confident that this trial will demonstrate that the ZE version is ideal for the type of duty cycle most operators demand.”
Information about the trials will be available on the CVP website at www.sts-technology.com/cvp.
