London Heathrow Airport has reached a key milestone in its sustainability efforts with the delivery of the 50th electric vehicle to the airport’s fleet.
This is a key step in Heathrow’s promise to make all of its cars and small vans either electric or plug-in hybrid by 2020. The 50 electric vehicles reduce the airport’s fleet emissions by 165 tons of CO2 each year, equivalent to the amount of energy used by 18 homes annually.
Since pledging to ‘Go Electric’, Heathrow has spent more than £4m (US$5.4m) in charging infrastructure, with a total of more than £5m (US$6.7m) committed to be spent by the end of 2018. As such, Heathrow’s charging infrastructure is the densest in Europe, with more than 80 charging points available to passengers, colleagues and airside vehicles.
Heathrow is also actively working in collaboration with TfL to install seven rapid charging points for black cabs before the end of 2017. These rapid 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 Jan 1, 2018.
John Holland-Kaye, CEO of Heathrow Airport, 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.”