Nine more van fleets make the Clean Van Commitment

Another nine van operators have signed up to take the Clean Van Commitment (CVC), which is a public pledge to move to zero emission vans in cities by 2028.

The nine new signatories are Arval, Mitie, Siemens, British Heart Foundation and the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, Novus Environmental, Commercial Group, Bywaters and Poplar Harca. They take the number of signatories to 25.

The UK's 4 million diesel vans contribute to 30 per cent of UK road transport's nitrous oxide emissions, which is harmful to human health. At the moment there are only 5,000 electric vans on the road, and Global Action Plan - the charity behind the CVC - say that it would take more than 3,000 years to wipe out diesel from the entire national an fleet at this rate.

Chris Large, senior partner at Global Action Plan said: "We can count the commercially available electric can models on one hand - and this will not meet out signatories' needs.

"There is an incredible new market at a time when the UK motor industry is talking of job losses. Some of our signatories are now turning to UK start ups to meet supply because established players cannot give them the vans they need."