Our Fleet

Electrification of our fleet

We have developed a Green Fleet Strategy to enable the purchasing of vehicles that deliver the business needs and consider their whole life costs whilst minimising their environmental impact. In support of this, a feasibility study was conducted by SWARCO in early 2022 to ascertain the infrastructure required over the next eight years to ensure a changeover to a fully electric fleet is viable at the Maidstone Borough Council Depot without hindering operations.

The results of the study found there was a need to upgrade the electric capacity to 600KVA for an entirely electrified fleet by 2030 and officers identified an existing substation near to the Depot. With basic low-cost ground works, we have connected to the existing supply and increased the Depot’s capacity to 227KVA. This will be ample capacity for the medium-term needs of the Depot’s light vehicles electric vehicle (EV) replacements with a further ten 7Kw electric chargers installed in 2023 bringing the total to 16 chargers on the Depot site and the potential of a rapid charger installation still being investigated.

The Depot currently has 11 electric vehicles in use, making 14% of the fleet electric so far, with more plans to upgrade other vehicles in 2024. The higher capacity will ensure that Depot operations continue in the short to medium term for a changeover to a fully EV fleet.