Loughborough University is lowering its road vehicle emissions and saving money, after investing in two new electric trucks.

The Alke ATX 200E utility vehicles, supplied by ePowerTrucks, can travel up to 50 miles on a single battery charge, will carry 500kg and tow up to 2,000kg. ePowerTrucks fitted one with a high mesh cage, for waste collection, while the other has a fully enclosed van box body. The vehicles are used by the maintenance team across Loughborough’s 437 acre, single site campus.

Clive Douthwaite, Logistics Manager for Loughborough University, said: “Environmental responsibility is very important to us, so we were determined to reduce emissions from our vehicle fleet. However, we wanted electric trucks that wouldn’t break the bank and still delivered great performance.

“We chose the Alke vehicles from ePower Trucks after trialling EVs from various manufacturers. We felt the Alke trucks were robust workhorses that performed really well, were very low cost to run and therefore offered the best return on investment.”

The ATX 200E uses around 4p per mile in electricity; a saving of up to 80% compared to a diesel van. The simplicity of the electric motor means that maintenance requirements - and costs - are also a lot lower than on a diesel vehicle. Even when powered by National Grid electricity, the Alke ATX 200E still reduces CO2 emissions by up to 50%.

ePowerTrucks is the UK’s leading supplier of low-cost, road-legal electric vehicles.

Jerry Hanss, Managing Director of ePowerTrucks, said: “Electric trucks are ideal for working in large campus environments - and in fact are far better suited to the stop-start nature of this maintenance work than a diesel-powered vehicle, which is designed for long distance driving.

“In these environs, our electric vehicles deliver substantial whole life cost savings as well improving air quality and lowering carbon emissions from fleets.”