Breakdown assistance firm becomes UK’s first to use all-electric patrol van
The RAC said it will trial an electric Renault Zoe van, which cannot tow vehicles but can carry the parts needed to fix four out of five breakdowns.
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.A major breakdown assistance company has announced it will be the first in the UK to use a pure electric patrol vehicle.
The RAC said it will trial a zero-emission Renault Zoe van, which cannot tow vehicles but can carry the parts needed to fix four out of five breakdowns on the spot.
It will mostly be used for the two most common breakdowns, which are caused by problems with batteries and tyres.
The van, which has a range of 245 miles, will be deployed in urban and rural locations to assess its efficiency as a patrol vehicle.
RAC group operations director Paul Coulton said: “This first RAC all-electric patrol van may be small, but it’s easily capable of successfully attending nearly half of the breakdowns we get called out to on a daily basis.
“We’re confident it will prove the old saying that good things really do come in small packages.”
The sale of new petrol and diesel cars and vans will be banned in the UK from 2030.
Mr Coulton went on: “We have been assessing various electric vans for some time but have been frustrated by the fact there isn’t one on the market that can do what our diesel-powered patrol vans can do at the moment in terms of carrying 500 parts and tools and towing broken-down vehicles, with a range that’s even half what one of our standard vans can do on a full tank.
“While we continue to talk to manufacturers about our requirements, we’re confident we can put an electric RAC patrol van into effective use on the road by carefully deploying it to jobs that won’t require towing.”