Europcar has doubled down on its emissions reduction with the arrival of the MG4 EV for its Delivery & Collection service.

The fully electric MG4 ‘runners’ support the delivery and collection of vehicles for customers

It’s deployed 25 of the fully electric hatchbacks across the branch network for exclusive use as ‘runners’, supporting the delivery and collection of vehicles for customers.

The new arrivals join the existing electric cars on the Delivery & Collection service, underscoring Europcar’s target to achieve 25% of all Delivery & Collection miles in electric vehicles this year.

Tom Middleditch, head of electric mobility at Europcar, said: “The MG4, which we brought onto our fleet at the start of last year, proved to be a great fit for many customers. It is also the ideal model to support our goal to reduce emissions in our own operations, with its long range and advanced driver tech. It, therefore, made sense to invest in 25 more MG4s for our Delivery & Collection runners, used alongside other makes and models as well as the electric bikes that support the service.”

Europcar has doubled the number of dedicated electric runner vehicles on its internal fleet since March 2023. As a result, in February 2024 a third (33.6%) of all its Delivery & Collection mileage was completed in an electric vehicle, the highest proportion to date, and ahead of the 2024 target of 25%. By the end of the first quarter, the Europcar Delivery & Collection team had completed 280,000 EV runner miles – a 28% increase on 2023.

Europcar data for 2023 also shows that 50,000 more EV rental days were taken in 2023 compared to 2022, covering 3.5 million EV miles.

Kevin Rand, UK operations director, Europcar, said: “The Europcar business has taken a number of steps in the last 12 months to reduce our impact on the environment, from applying connected technology to almost 100% of our fleet to know when vehicles are ready to collect, to achieving 77% EV usage amongst our own company car drivers. Significantly increasing the number of electric runners on our fleet means our own drivers have become real EV champions, fully engaged in our goal to reduce emissions.”