Coolvan granted £500,000 to develop green food delivery vans

Barnoldswick-based CoolVan has received more than £500,000 of government funding to be invested in creating an electric-powered temperature-controlled van.

The refrigerated vehicle specialist is working in partnership with scientists from the University of Warwick and control systems specialists from Siemens to design a zero emissions fridge van for delivery of fresh food.

The funding is from the Office for Zero Emission Vehicles (OZEV) in partnership with Innovate UK, which has offered up £20m to 62 projects hoping to unlock some of the biggest barriers to EV ownership.

Chris Warburton, managing director, CoolVan  said: "The hospitality sector relies on daily deliveries of fresh, chilled and frozen food, but the days of the diesel delivery van could be numbered.

"As UK cities seek to build back better and more sustainably post-pandemic, many are accelerating plans to restrict access to traditional internal combustion engine vehicles – presenting a serious challenge to the logistics and delivery industry.

"We have been trialling electric vehicles and low emission refrigeration systems for several years now and have built a number of prototype vehicles. The combination of additional funding and the opportunity to work with highly skilled and experienced partners such as Siemens and the University of Warwick will accelerate the delivery of a viable zero emissions refrigerated vehicle to operate safely in cities across the UK."

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