Britain’s white van man is being hindered in an ambition of going green due to a chronic shortage of electric vans on the market.

With fuel prices crippling transport businesses large and small across the nation, the race to convert to electric is stronger than ever,with nine out of ten self-employed van drivers either owning or want to own an EV van in the next five years.

Analysis by the Transport & Environment think tank found that owning an electric van can be up to a quarter less expensive to run than a diesel van, but the availability of EV vans is far behind that of electric cars.

Of the 355,380 van registrations in 2021, only 12,759 were electric (3.6 per cent), compared to the buoyant EV car market where there were 190,727 new registrations last year, which represented 11.6 per cent.

“Van drivers want to ditch diesel and go green by switching to electric models that are at least a fifth cheaper to own and run. But van manufacturers are drip-feeding electric vans into the UK market,” said Ralph Palmer from T&E UK.

“It’s time to open the tap by regulating van makers and make them supply more e-vans to the UK.”

Legislation will be introduced in 2024 under the Zero Emissions Vehicles mandate which will require producers to sell one EV van for every five sold, while the T&E report also suggests that were will be 44 electric van models on sale this year, compared to just 18 models in 2019.

“A rapid shift to e-vans is a triple-win for our energy security, business costs and environment, slashing climate and air pollution emissions,” Palmer continued.

“But without new regulations, UK businesses will continue to be denied the e-vans they want to use.”

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