Heathrow Airport added 17 Nissan Leafs to its fleet, replacing some of about 8.000 vehicles currently operating on the airport. 12 of them are used airside by security, baggage and other teams and five serve as pool cars.
That marks the beginning of a big change on a big airport that plans to replace all cars and small vans that operate airside with all-electric or plug-in hybrid vehicles. The change should happen by 2020 and they will also encourage third party operators working on airport to switch to environmentally friendly vehicles and contribute to better air quality in the area around the airport.
Peter Leming, Head of Operational Strategy at Heathrow explained: "Through Heathrow 2.0, our plan for sustainable growth, we are aiming to establish Heathrow as a world-leading airport in reducing emissions from all sources of activity. A key part of this is by targeting the conversion of 100% of Heathrow's cars and small vans to electric or plug-in hybrid by 2020, with ultra-low emission standards for all airside vehicles to follow by 2025."