New eco-friendly vehicle for Yorkshire Ambulance

Aiming to drive down emissions in its 1,200-strong fleet over the next few years, Yorkshire Ambulance Service NHS Trust is to be the first ambulance service to introduce a dual-fuel non-emergency patient transport vehicle to its fleet.

The Peugeot Boxer, which has been converted to run on hydrogen and diesel, uses unique ULEMCo technology which enables up to 45 per cent of the vehicle’s energy to come from hydrogen rather than diesel, allowing its carbon dioxide emissions to be reduced by the same amount.

Alexis Percival, environmental and sustainability manager at the trust, said: “We are so excited to have another world first for an ambulance service to have a hydrogen dual-fuel vehicle in our fleet. As a public sector organisation, we have a responsibility to reduce our exhaust emissions to improve the health of the people we serve, and this vehicle takes us further down the road to zero emissions. We are looking to expand our zero-emission fleet, as Clean Air Zones are launched across the region.”

Chris Dexter, managing director of the Patient Transport Service at YAS, added: “We are looking forward to testing this technology in our fleet and seeing how we can work towards becoming a zero-emission fleet for the future. This heralds the start of a new era in patient transport.”
 
Yorkshire Ambulance Service NHS Trust is also working with ULEMCo to build a prototype hydrogen-electric emergency ambulance which will have zero emissions. The trust has already introduced several other initiatives to reduce its carbon footprint, including installing solar panels on more than 100 ambulances to keep their batteries charged, aerodynamic light bars, greener tyres and hydrogen-electric support vehicles.