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Frontline ambulance crews have been testing and reviewing electric vehicles as part of efforts to make emergency response services more sustainable.
With a fleet of over 600 vehicles covering 3,200 square miles and serving a population of 2.7 million, the North East Ambulance Service (NEAS) is exploring greener alternatives to reduce its carbon footprint.
In 2023/24, emergency crews and patient transport services completed more than 770,000 journeys to hospitals and healthcare providers across the region. To assess the viability of electric vehicles, NEAS recently held a test day where operational staff took rapid response vehicles out on the road.
“It is important to remember the impact that using electric vehicles may have on not only our patients, but the frontline crews who respond to them.
“By inviting operational staff to the trial, and collecting their opinions, management staff are able to make an informed decision as to the future of the fleet as well as the future of patient care.”
Chris Chalmers, Head of Operations (central), NEAS.
NEAS has launched several initiatives to cut emissions, including evaluating alternative electric vehicles. The service reduced its carbon emissions by 7.4% in 2024 – exceeding its target by 2.4%.
“Electric vehicles will play a key role in shaping the future of our fleet and driving the transition to a greener, more sustainable service, for the communities we serve. We are keen to evaluate the various electric vehicle options on offer to a service like ours.
“There are many benefits to the use of electric vehicles within our fleet and a reduction in harmful emissions is a key one. Most importantly, electric vehicles are reliable as they do not need key items such as clutches or engines replacing.”
David Parkin, Fleet Operations Manager, NEAS.
The NEAS driver training team were on hand to observe and assess the rapid response vehicles at the test event, as well as the crews use of them.
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. Read the full report here.
