UK telecoms giant BT Group has claimed that it has made the largest ever order of electric vehicles (EVs) for a UK commercial fleet.
The company today (9 January) announced that it has ordered around 3,500 new EVs to be delivered between now and 2026. Once this delivery has been completed, BT Group said it will have the largest fleet of EVs in the UK, with almost 8,000 of the firm’s vehicles being EVs.
BT Group manages the UK’s second-largest fleet of commercial vehicles, with the firm’s engineers making use of around 27,000 vehicles across the UK. The company, which includes the UK’s largest wholesale broadband company, Openreach, has set a target of becoming a net zero business by March 2031.
Simon Lowth, chief financial officer, BT Group, said: “By integrating yet more electric vehicles into our operations, we are taking another significant step towards reducing our carbon footprint and supporting the UK’s transition to a greener future. As we extend our full fibre build, having the most efficient, sustainable electric vehicles will give our engineers the edge as they connect customers at pace to our next generation networks.”
Lilian Greenwood, Future of Roads Minister, added: “Businesses have a crucial role to play in driving the transition to electric cars and vans. That’s why it’s fantastic to see that BT Group have made the most of our plug-in van grant. We want to help more businesses decarbonise their operations, and we’ve extended our plug-in van grant with £120m funding to help roll out more zero emission vans on our roads – part of our £2.3bn to support industry and consumers switch to EVs and make the transition a success”.
Electric van market struggles with lack of specialist charging
An order of this size is welcome news for the UK’s electric van sector, which has seen slow growth in recent months.
Statistics released yesterday (8 January) by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) revealed that new battery electric van registrations rose by a mere 3.3% in December of last year, with the market share of battery electric vans remaining static at 6.3% across both 2023 and 2024.
While reasons for this stagnation are complex and multifaceted, but one reason frequently cited is the lack of specialist charging infrastructure for light commercial vehicles (LCVs) such as vans, which the SMMT believes could undermine confidence in the benefits of switching to electric commercial fleets. While chargepoint rollout for electric cars, which have less specialist requirements than their LCV counterparts, has been a noted success, the number of rapid and ultra rapid chargepoints and chargepoints on the UK’s motorway network are arguably halting enthusiasm.
In comparison, fleet sales for new electric cars have been breaking industry records. In 2024, EVs sold a record 43,656 units, with fleet sales increasing by 11.8% and accounting for 59.6% of all new EV sales.
However, the rapid widening of choice in the electric van market could potentially spark more interest in the coming year. In the UK, there are currently 33 different zero-emission van options to choose from, and over half (52.4%) of new van models introduced last year were electric.
