Heathrow delivers its 50th electric vehicle in bid to get greener

Heathrow has reached a milestone in its pledge to ‘Go Electric’ with the delivery of its 50th electric vehicle to the airport’s fleet.

Said to be a major step in Heathrow’s promise to make its cars and small vans electric or plug-in hybrid by 2020, the 50 electric vehicles reduce the airport’s fleet emissions by 165 tons of CO2 a year, equivalent to the amount of energy used by 18 homes annually.

Heathrow’s has over 80 charging points available to passengers, colleagues and airside vehicles. Since pledging to ‘Go Electric’, Heathrow has spent over £4m in charging infrastructure, with a total of more than £5m to be spent by the end of 2018.

John Holland-Kaye, Heathrow’s CEO, said: “Our sustainability strategy, Heathrow 2.0, and global commitments like EV100 tie Heathrow to some ambitious but realistic targets to clean up our fleet and speed up the take-up of electric technology across our airport.

“Since our pledge to switch to electric cars and vans in 2015 we have made tremendous progress towards improving air quality in our city, but we are committed to go further yet.”

Heathrow is also working in collaboration with TfL to install seven rapid charging points for black cabs before the end of 2017.

These charging points, some of the first in London, will support the Mayor’s requirements for all newly licensed black cabs to be either electric or plug-in hybrid by January 1, 2018.

These chargers will be installed in Heathrow’s Taxi Feeder Park, and are said to work three times faster than an average charger.

Heathrow was one of the first 10 companies in the world to commit to EV100, taking Heathrow’s commitment to electric technology further by tying the airport to turning all large vans and half of its HGVs electric or plug-in hybrid by 2030.