British Gas orders a thousand Vivaro-e with Vauxhall
The Opel sister brand Vauxhall has received an order from British Gas for 1,000 fully electric vans, the Vivaro-e. According to the manufacturer, this is the largest commercial order for electric vehicles in the UK to date.
British Gas and Opel have not revealed exactly which versions of the Vivaro-e will be used in what proportions of the 1,000 vehicles ordered. The fully electric working vans are to be used by British Gas engineers nationwide. The Vauxhall Vivaro-e offers a choice of two battery sizes (50 and 75 kWh) as well as three vehicle lengths (4.60 meters, 4.95 meters and 5.30 meters) and various body variants (van, crew cab, station wagon for passenger transport and as a platform for superstructures).
Propulsion is provided by the 100 kW electric motor known from the Corsa-e, which Vitesco Technologies supplies. The smaller battery provides a range of 230 WLTP kilometres, the larger one for 330 kilometres. DC quick charging to 80 per cent takes between 30 and 45 minutes depending on the battery. The Vivaro-e will be supplied ex-works with a single-phase 7.4 kW onboard AC charger, with an optional 11 kW onboard charger for three-phase power available as an option.
“We chose to work with Vauxhall as they were able to give us a large number of high-quality and low emission vans to help us effectively serve our customers – and they will also work with us on future EV solutions,” said Matthew Bateman, Managing Director of British Gas.
The formerly state-owned company British Gas is part of the Centrica Group, which joined the EV100 initiative in 2019. The company has thus committed itself to electrify its fleet of vehicles by 2030. Centrica has 12,000 vehicles in its fleet. Some more of these could well come from Opel/Vauxhall since Opel says that British Gas “will be making further orders with Vauxhall for electric vehicles as soon as they are available.”
0 Comments