Water supplier Southern Water has announced it will partner with Novuna Vehicle Solutions to transition its vehicle fleet to EVs.
The £33 million contract awarded to fleet services provider Novuna Vehicle Solutions will see all of Southern Water’s fleet of diesel vans and company cars replaced with battery electric vehicles (BEVs) and plug-in hybrids (PHEVs). Over the course of the five-year contract term, Novuna will also provide fleet management services and will install EV chargers at 36 of Southern Water’s work sites, as well as at relevant employees’ homes. The first installations of these EV chargers are set to begin at the utility’s offices in Durrington and Falmer in the coming weeks.
In order to allow the switch to EVs to begin as soon as possible, movable rapid chargers will be initially rolled out across the sites to be used while permanent EV charging infrastructure is designed and installed. Southern Water’s fleet is extensive and made up of over 1,100 vehicles, including 749 diesel vans, 200 company cars, and 205 other specialist vehicles such as fork-lifts and trucks.
Jon Lawes, managing director of Novuna Vehicle Solutions said that the firm is proud to partner with Southern Water in their decarbonisation efforts, adding: “With a robust infrastructure rollout and dedicated support across all fleet classes, we’re committed to deliver a real impact and value to Southern Water demonstrating our unique end-to-end capabilities to future proof their business operations.”
Martin Lock, fleet manager at Southern Water agreed, adding that Novuna’s “ expertise in decarbonisation, especially across commercial vehicles, will be vital as we design and build the charging infrastructure required to move our fleet towards net zero”.
Southern Water is one of a number of UK companies working to decarbonise their transport fleet. At the start of this year, telecoms giant BT Group made what it claimed is the largest ever order of EVs for a UK commercial fleet, ordering around 3,500 new EVs to be delivered between now and 2026. Later that same month, retail and tech titan Amazon ordered over 140 battery electric heavy goods vehicles, set to join its transportation fleet over the next 18 months; these will be supported by fast charging infrastructure to be installed across Amazon’s fulfilment centres, sorting centres, and delivery stations.
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