Earlier this month, British Gas announced that it has ordered 1,000 new all-electric Vivaro-e vans from Vauxhall — the largest commercial BEV (battery electric vehicle) order in the UK to date. The BEVs will arrive over the next 12 months and be ‘rolled out’ nation-wide across the British Gas engineering workforce.

Centrica, which owns British Gas, says it is committed to electrifying its 12,000 strong fleet by 2030 and will be making further orders with Vauxhall for electric vehicles (EVs) as soon as they are available. This may include the all-electric Combo-e, which will be available from summer 2021.

The engineers who receive the new vans will be chosen from volunteers. British Gas will also be targeting areas where it is important to lower emissions and where a van already needs replacing.

British Gas managing director Matthew Bateman said: “Our engineers and their vans are part of the local community they serve and it is important that we reduce the emissions of our vans so that we are contributing towards better air quality.

“We are committed to the transition to EVs, which involves changing our fleet as well as helping consumers and businesses with charging points and infrastructure.

“We chose to work with Vauxhall as the company was able to supply us with a large number of high-quality and low-emission vans — and work with us on future EV solutions.”