One of the Nissan e-NV200 Combi vans is being used by the university’s Print Services team, with one for its postal team and two for its maintenance team. All of the teams have similar requirements, they carry loads anything from boxes of open day brochures and daily post collections to spare pumps, motors and ladders for the maintenance team.
They travel around the city campus making multiple short journeys and drop offs. On an average day, each vehicle will cover 10-20 miles stopping off at as many as 20 buildings for collections and deliveries.
The University of Bristol has four charging points, one for each van. Three are located next to its Estates Office at Old Park Hill and one is located at Senate House where the post team are based.
David Tonkin, estates manager at the University of Bristol, said: “We decided to look in to electric vehicles for a variety of reasons both in the interests of sustainable fleet management and basic operational requirements.
“Our Print Services team were having difficulties with their existing diesel vehicle, which wasn’t suited to a hilly, city environment with the stop-start, frequent short journeys we tend to make at the University. After looking at the options available, they trialled an electric van from Nissan and found that it could do the job without any of the difficulties experienced with the diesel, such as having to run it up the motorway once a week to clear the particulate filter.
“Having trialled the van, we looked at other areas where we might benefit from using electric vehicles and identified our post and maintenance teams. The vehicles are more suited to the multiple short journeys we take each day, they improve the air quality in our city campus and as they all return to the same spot each night, range isn’t an issue as we can charge them overnight.
“An added benefit is the time saved. We now no longer have downtime fuelling the vehicles off-site or ‘exercising’ them up the motorway to clear the particulate filters. The Nissan e-NV200 has the right range and load capacity for our usage so there is no operational compromise we’ve had to make, in fact, they’re better for our purposes than the previous vehicles.”
Wessex Garages’ Nissan brand centre at Cribbs Causeway provided the four vans.
Kate Hancock, Nissan business specialist at Wessex Garages on Hayes Way, said: “We have worked extremely hard over the past year informing businesses in Bristol of the benefits of turning to an electric vehicle. It is fantastic that the University of Bristol has taken the step to have an environmentally friendly sustainable fleet. We hope more businesses in the city will follow in their tyre treads.”
