Sainsbury’s to create the world’s largest electric van fleet…

News came in today that J. Sainsbury’s has agreed a new deal with SEV (Smith Electric Vehicles), the deal will see the supermarket add an additional 50 electric vans to its existing 20, which will make it the largest commercial electric fleet in the world. The bastion of the British supermarket industry successfully trialled the Smith Edison vehicle back in 2007 and went on to purchase a further 20 vehicles. Back in 2007 Sainsbury’s hoped to see 100% of their online shopping delivered by 2010, but with 3 weeks of the year left it seems that this pledge was a little overambitious. With the additional 50 vans, Sainsbury’s stated that over 60% of central Londoners will now have their shopping delivered by an EV and they will manage to reduce their CO2 emissions by over 155 tonnes a year.

Smith’s EV was originally established in the early 20th century, back then the company built milk floats and bread vans, but since then the company has modernised and expanded thanks to a successful relationship with several major retailers. Since then the company has designed a variety of vehicles and vans for sale, including both the Edison and Newton models. The Edison vehicles are currently restricted to 40mph, can travel over 60 miles per day and use a breaking efficiency system that enables the vehicle to recapture energy used when slowing down.

The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, today announced his pleasure at the deal and said “This is cracking news from Sainsbury’s which will help deliver to Londoners not only their groceries, but all the benefits of going electric such as cleaner air and fewer carbon emissions. It shows that a commitment to this technology, even in leaner times, is good for businesses and great for our environment.” Of course one of the added benefits for Sainsbury’s is the exclusion of EV’s from the London Congestion Charge. In addition to the LCC the EU and the city of London may be implementing additional charges based upon CO2 emissions in the near distant future. A number of other van hire and courier companies, including Royal Mail, DHL and TNT have also purchased EV’s from Smith and have pledged to increase the numbers of electric vehicles within their fleets.