Electric Vehicles Spark PM Interest

01/03/2010

Prime Minister Gordon Brown was full of praise for the innovation shown by one of Britain’s leading niche vehicle makers. 

The PM visited Allied Electric’s manufacturing plant in Glasgow, where he met company bosses and blue collar workers on the factory floor.   

Strong Roots

Allied Electric is part of the Allied Vehicles Group, which undertakes specialist conversions and second-stage manufacturing to provide high quality automotive products for niche markets.  These include the taxi market, in which Allied is an established market leader and wheelchair accessible vehicles, where Allied has helped transform the market over the past five years.

However it was the company’s new range of all-electric Peugeot vans that most caught the PM’s attention.  

Electric Future

Allied has now set its sights on becoming the UK’s leading supplier of all-electric vehicles (EVs) for the light commercial market. 

It has already won government-backed contracts for its electric Peugeot Boxer vans, which will operate in various locations around the UK.  Allied will also supply electric Peugeot Partner and Peugeot Expert cars and MPVs for a trial project supported by Glasgow City Council, Scottish Power, Strathclyde University and Dundee battery-maker Axeon. 

“The Prime Minister was particularly excited about our work in electric vehicles,” reports managing director Paul Nelson. 

“All-electric vehicles are very much part of the shape of things to come but it’s still a relatively new concept to most people, so having the endorsement of the Prime Minister can only help raise the profile of EVs, which produce zero emissions while in operation.

Nelson adds: “Range and functionality of electric vehicles has advanced rapidly in the past two to three years, making them a genuine alternative, especially for city centre operations. 

Strategy

“Our strategy here is to be at the forefront of a new market – the Heinz of electric commercial vehicles if you like. 

“It’s a rapidly moving technology field and we’ve got several exiting new developments in the pipeline already, so it looks sure to be an interesting ride.”

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