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NHS England is funding up to 80 new electric ambulances for use in services across England as part of its bid to decarbonise the fleets of the ten ambulance trusts.
Currently, NHS ambulance trusts must follow the national specification for double crewed ambulance, but in the case of the electric ambulance, there is only one option and that’s the Ford model. London Ambulance Service has two electric ambulances in service and another 23 will go to other ambulances services this year.
For the next financial year, NHS England has funding for up to 55 more electric ambulances for seven trusts across England. That will see the London number go up to nine and the rest will be distributed across other trusts.
Paul Leach, Head of Ambulance Innovation for NHS England, says that there is some nervousness in trusts to adopting the electric ambulances especially when it comes to driving long distances in rural locations.
“My advice to trusts is to try them out; see what works, what doesn’t work. To start with, treat them as extra vehicles, put them on a shift for 12 hours and see what the results are like before stepping up its usage over time.”
One of the key challenges for successful adoption of electric ambulances is staff confidence, so familiarisation and training is important, adds Paul. He’s working with trusts to figure out the whole eco system that the electric ambulance operates in to ensure it can be integrated. It is a systems-wide approach to getting that involves the trusts, the hospitals and other partners in the locality.
Gathering data from the telematics on the ambulances has been a big part of working out the feasibility of electric ambulances and Paul says that the data work will now provide insights into how the ambulances operate in real time as the roll out increases pace. Because the ambulances are all Ford, Paul and his team will be able to use the existing Ford Pro system with some modifications because it is designed for a traditional diesel vehicle.
“By March 2026, if everything goes to plan, we will have 80 electric ambulances across England.”
There are two different converters for electric vehicles – WAS in Germany and Wilker in the UK – on the electric ambulance converter framework. Paul says that this is a two-year agreement, and as the market begins to grow, all five converters on the main vehicle framework will be able to carry out electric vehicle conversions based on a national specification developed in consultation with ambulance trust fleet managers.
He says that in many ways the ‘box on the back’ of the ambulance is the same as a traditional ambulance but adjustments have been made to compensate for the lack of a ramp in the electric version because of the location of the battery. This means that trusts can choose from two different stretchers that work without a ramp.
A fully kitted out electric ambulance costs around £180k, so 80 ambulances equates to a big investment of £14.4m over the two year period.
“We are making progress,” says Paul, “the market is telling us to go faster. We’re hearing from manufacturers that they are going to be electric only from 2028 onwards. And this is giving us some focus. we need to be on the front foot; we need to move.”
In 2022, the Zero Emission Emergency Vehicle (ZEEV) Pathfinder Programme, part of the NHS Net Zero Travel and Transport Strategy, seed funded the non-ambulance EV transition for NHS ambulance trusts. The £2.1m programme ran over two years in eight trusts in England and included purchase, conversion and charging. The outcome of this project is being evaluated and the report is due out in a few months.
“The ZEEV Pathfinder Programme has definitely given trusts a lot of confidence so that they can transition rapid response vehicles to electric; the range is there, and if there is any challenge it’s in the infrastructure.”
To make the transition a reality, the infrastructure needs to be in place and that means charging points of the right size and crucially in the right place. Paul says there is a lot of work going on within NHS England to get funding to support ambulance trusts with their infrastructure requirements. Part of that is bound up in the spending review process where all government departments bid for funding and the results of that should be known soon.
Pauls says that the overall story for the ambulance service is very positive, but the challenge of joining up the work here with the rest of the emergency services to get economies of scale still remains.
This interview forms part of a wider Emergency Services Times insights report on how the emergency services is transitioning to an electric fleet. Blue lights, green fleet, a joint report with Cenex, launches on 20 March. Join the launch webinar to find out more.
