An NHS trust in Yorkshire is deploying all-electric Nissan Townstar vans on its fleet.

The Townstars succeed the fleet’s previous Nissan e-NV200s

York and Scarborough Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has taken delivery of nine of the eLCVs, with another five expected to arrive shortly.

The vehicles are being used by the trust’s security and estates teams, as well as carrying out important tasks such as transporting blood samples and delivering furniture and other bulky items to hospitals and surgeries in and around North Yorkshire.

The Townstars succeed the fleet’s previous Nissan e-NV200s, the vehicle’s predecessor, and were chosen for their combined range of up to 183 miles and handy side-loading door.

Philip Bland, transport manager at York Teaching Hospital Facilities Management, said: “Townstar ticks every box for us, in the same way that e-NV200 did. Aside from purely practical considerations, it’s a super vehicle and we get plenty of positive feedback from our drivers – they say it’s just like driving a car.

“The vans are put to all sorts of uses – our skilled tradespeople such as joiners, plumbers and painters use them, as well as our CCTV teams and other colleagues. They need to be able to adapt to all kinds of uses – and they are excellent at doing that. We’re delighted with them.”

Nissan’s Townstar launched last year in both petrol and fully electric guise and has been designed to future-proof business operations and accelerate the transition towards electrification.