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In a first for Emergency Services Times, we asked 108 emergency services about how they are transitioning to low emission fleet to meet net zero ambitions and with a 95% response rate, we found that only 13% of existing fleet is electric or hybrid and in two-thirds of services, plans to expand it are undeveloped or non-existent.
We sent out a seven-question Freedom of Information request to every police, fire and ambulance service across the UK. Of those 108 services, 103 responded meaning we have a really good view on what’s going on and we’ve set out our findings in Blue lights, green fleet, our first insights report.
The reason we’re interested in this is because we know that by 2030 the government will phase out the sale of diesel and petrol fuelled vehicles. A recently closed consultation on this and the ZEV mandate aimed at vehicle manufacturers provides more detail. While the timeline may be longer for larger HGV type vehicles, the emergency services need to be planning ahead and getting the infrastructure in place to ensure they can keep an increasingly green fleet on the road.
It has been great to partner with Cenex for this report, as they are experts in this field and Carl Christie has provided valuable counsel along the way as we’ve developed our findings into the final product available exclusively through our website.
So, what did we ask?
We wanted to set the scene, so we asked about the size of current fleets and found out that there are just over 53,000 vehicles in use across all three blue lights. We know this isn’t complete because some police forces said they weren’t including non-marked fleet for security reasons. Some services included fleet lists with boats, motorbikes and other non-four wheeled fleet but we decided to let services interpret fleet as widely or narrowly as they wished.
Of that 53,000 total fleet we asked how much of it was electric or hybrid and we were surprised to find the figure is just under 7,000. Overall, electric and hybrid account for 13% of total fleet and is only a bit higher when looking just at police. The chart below shows the breakdown by service.
Read the report to find out who tops the list for spending on EVs so far in police, fire and ambulance.
Column chart. Reported by services up to November 2024. Data table with 4 rows and 2 columns follows.
| Total | |
|---|---|
| Police | 4,668 |
| Fire | 1,262 |
| Ambulance | 1,017 |
The report shows which vehicle brands services have bought – with BMW and Toyota coming out at the top but the list is pretty long with some services buying as many as nine different brands across their electric fleet. The amount of money spent so far varies too, with Police Scotland spending just over £25m, it is far ahead of any other service across the UK. Some services didn’t share how much they had spent so the picture is by no means complete.
We also asked services how many electric or hybrid vehicles they planned to buy each year and how much they will spend up to 2030. In nearly 70% of the responses, services told us they didn’t know what they planned to spend, wouldn’t tell us or said it was wrapped up in wider plans not yet confirmed. Only four services told us how many electric or hybrid vehicles they plan to buy with a year by year costed plan. It is concerning that all services do not do the same.
Find out more detail about what services are doing by checking out the full report.
Why does this matter?
While it may seem that fleet transition is just a concern for fleet managers, it isn’t. It’s an issue that affects many different parts of emergency services, starting with estates to get the charging sorted. It involves finance and procurement to ensure budgets and due process are followed to get the best value for money.
But ultimately, it’s about leadership. Leaders need to have this risk flashing red on their corporate risk registers because time is ticking on and if services don’t have a clear plan for moving existing fleets to electric well before 2030, they may find that they are at the back of the queue for ordering vehicles and making sure the charging infrastructure can cope with the demand.
We’ve learned from this report that the transition to an all-electric fleet is slow but it’s not just about replacing one vehicle type with another.
When it comes to charging that ever-expanding green fleet, what will the emergency services do? The message coming out loud and clear from talking to fleet leads for this report is that there isn’t enough charging infrastructure and they don’t have enough money to invest in it in places that suit their operational needs. There is a lack of joined up thinking across police, fire and ambulance.
There is change afoot in with the abolition of NHS England, the move of fire policy back to the Ministry of Housing and a Home Secretary who is looking at national approaches to delivering policing when it comes to technology at least. And where police, fire and ambulance are devolved, next May there will be elections for the Scottish Parliament and the Welsh Senedd.
Perhaps all this change will create fertile ground for a conversation about paying for the infrastructure to make sure all emergency services can transition to electric and charge their vehicles at any emergency services location regardless of which organisation’s name is on the door.
Blue lights, green fleet is available now. Watch the launch webinar on catch up here – How emergency services are transitioning to electric fleets.
