The John Lewis Partnership is replacing its Home Services fleet with electric vehicles as part of its commitment to transition 4,000 cars, vans and light trucks to EV by 2030.

The trial has commenced this week and, if successful, will see the John Lewis Partnership shift to a fully electric 4,000-strong fleet by 2030

The project will start next month and follows a successful joint wireless van charging trial currently underway at Waitrose at St Katharine Dock in London.

The work is being supported by EV technology specialist Flexible Power Systems (FPS), which is establishing a mixed charging solution incorporating depot, public network and home charging.

FPS will integrate data collected into a wider electrification plan for the 350 Home Services vehicles, which provide home estimating & fitting services for John Lewis.

The move follows a commitment by the John Lewis Partnership to have a fossil-free fleet by 2030; it’s planning to have all HGVs running on biomethane by 2028 and all its delivery and Home Services fleet will be electrified by 2030.

Kate Cosco, product services field manager, said: “This is another step along the path of the John Lewis Partnerships ambition to move completely away from fossils fuels in the fleet by 2030, saving an estimated 500,000 tonnes of CO2 between 2020 and 2030. This is a wonderful opportunity to test how electric vehicles work for us in Home Services. The team are extremely excited to get out on the road and to begin driving these new vehicles.”

Michael Ayres, managing director of FPS, added that replacing diesel vehicles with EVs was just one part of the electrification picture.

He continued: “We need to bring together the ecosystem of chargers, power management and operational interfaces required to keep fleets serving customers efficiently.

“Like many company car drivers, Home Services partners have a range of working patterns and living arrangements, we need to ensure we can offer a flexible and scalable charging solution to fit these needs via depot, home or public network charging.”

Ayres also said it was essential to collect data through trials such as this one, in order to inform and de-risk the highly substantial investments fleets are making into decarbonising vehicles and infrastructure.

“One size doesn’t fit all in fleet electrification projects. A range of operational, site and vehicle requirements need to be balanced to arrive at effective strategies,” he outlined.