UK’s plug-in hybrid van targets delivery firms to plumbers

Bloomberg

The maker of Britain’s iconic black cabs is building a plug-in hybrid van that can travel
for 377 miles without recharging or filling up, in a bid to win over long-distance delivery firms and other companies that rely on purely gasoline vehicles.
London Electric Vehicle Co is targeting high-mileage fleets at firms such as Royal Mail Plc and utilities BT Group Plc and Octopus Energy, Chief Executive Officer Joerg Hofmann said. The model is also aimed at people such as plumbers and florists who might make a dozen back-to-back trips a day.
The as-yet unnamed one-ton van goes on sale in October and is derived from the TX5 London taxi launched two years ago.
The vehicle can run for 80 miles on its electric motor, after which a 1.5.-litre “range extender” engine kicks in to recharge the battery and increase its span to almost five times that.
“We’re talking about distribution to the door, rather than just the last mile like other electric vans,” Hofmann said at a briefing in London.
“You get zero emissions in the city but you can also drive the length of the country with the range extender, so range anxiety becomes a thing of the past.”