Supplied by Cambridge Chevrolet, and hoped to be the first of several, the Volt’s duties will include blue light response, where it offers a claimed 75% reduction in CO2 emissions compared to the service’s vehicle benchmarks.

The car will be the third use of General Motors’s extended-range drivetrain in UK emergency service fleets, following recent deployment of the mechanically similar Vauxhall Ampera in the Yorkshire Ambulance Service NHS Trust, and Police Service in Northern Ireland.

Chief Fire Officer, Nigel Williams said: ‘When looking forward for new ways to continue to decrease emissions the Volt came through our trials process with flying colours as the best next move we could make in terms of our fleet of emergency response cars.

‘It has the carrying capacity and handling/performance characteristics we need for blue-light response, combined with energy bills that are a scale change from our current conventional vehicles, especially combined with our solar panels which will provide much of the electrical charging for the Volt.’

In the last two years, Norfolk Fire Service has already reduced business mileage by 25%, which combined with better insulation and building management plus the addition of solar panels across its 41 stations has contributed to a 37% reduction in CO2 emissions.