London takes action against pollution by adding hybrid vehicles to its public fleets

The battle of the London city council against environmental pollution is proving quite intense. The measures they are taking to prevent it from increasing considerably have become the model to follow in other European capitals, but they do not want to stop and are going to prepare new measures to keep the fumes from harming the health of Londoners. One of these measures being tested is the introduction of hybrid commercial vehicles into the fleets of the capital’s public services.

For the moment, these are trials that will be carried out starting next October. The vehicles selected for this pilot test are several units of the Ford Transit Custom Plug-in Hybrid (PHEV), which will be gradually incorporated into the five fleets chosen to receive these hybrid vans so they can drive more cleanly through the streets of the British capital.

The Ford vans are already quite popular, but this version combines the capacity and characteristics we already know with plug-in hybrid technology. These are vehicles that emit far fewer emissions into the environment and will be able to move freely through the different districts of the city. The public fleets chosen have been the Metropolitan Police, Transport for London, Clancy Plant, Addison Lee and British Gas, which will each test some of these units.

The project will last twelve months, during which 20 units of the Ford Transit Custom Plug-in Hybrid will be distributed among these companies and public institutions. Each of these units has a system for measuring and recording the van’s performance to determine its behaviour during daily use, which will help establish whether it is a suitable vehicle for city driving and for the services it is intended for.

The Metropolitan Police will take on two units. One of them will serve as a second response unit for traffic accidents and the other will support forensic services. The agency Transport for London will use three of them as shuttles, and the rest will be distributed among the other fleets for different functions.

Source | Ford