The latest electric van from Smith Electric Vehicles was launched at the CV show today. The Edison is housed in a Ford Transit shell but it is not made by Ford.
Already eight have been purchased by Sainsbury's for its Online home shopping fleet. Sainsbury's has said it will replace 20% of its urban delivery fleet with electric vehicles
by September 2008 and 100% of the fleet by 2010.
The vehicle is capable of 50mph and has a range of up to 150 miles with a 1,500kg payload. It is powered by sodium nickel chloride batteries.
Simon Skeet, operations manager of Sainsbury Online, says drivers like electric vehicles because there are no gear changes and they are almost silent.
Also on display was a Tesco home delivery vehicle based on a Modec. Tesco has ordered 15 of these. The bodywork for both the Tesco and the Sainsbury's vehicles was carried out by Solomon.
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