Britain’s biggest and busiest airport has added 17 Nissan LEAFs to its fleet as part of an overall plan to increase electric and hybrid car usage throughout the Heathrow site.

The airport has initially ordered the mini-fleet of all-electric LEAFs with twelve being operated airside by teams including security and baggage and another five being used as pool cars.

The move has been made in line with the company’s commitment that all cars and small vans in its own fleet are electric or plug-in hybrid by the end of 2020, one of the steps Heathrow is taking to doing to reduce emissions and improve local air quality.

By introducing the vehicles in highly visible airside roles, it hopes to encourage the many third parties that operate thousands of vehicles around Heathrow to follow suit.

In all, some 8,000 vehicles are licensed to operate airside at Heathrow, with ambitious targets in place to encourage third parties to replace these with zero-emission all-electric vehicles – all helping reduce the airport’s carbon footprint. 

Peter Leeming, Head of Operational Strategy at Heathrow, said: “Through Heathrow 2.0, our plan for sustainable growth, we are aiming to establish Heathrow as a world-leading airport in reducing emissions from all sources of activity. A key part of this is by targeting the conversion of 100% of Heathrow’s cars and small vans to electric or plug-in hybrid by 2020, with ultra-low emission standards for all airside vehicles to follow by 2025.

“We trialled the Nissan LEAF and found it was the perfect fit for many of our teams and the types of journeys they make. The trial went seamlessly, and within months we placed our order and put the LEAF into full time service.”

Nissan recently introduced a new 30 kWh battery model that delivers 26 percent more range versus the previous generation model, and up to 155 miles of driving range on a single charge*. 

Darren Payne, Sales Director at Nissan Motor (GB), said: “We are delighted to be supporting Heathrow Airport as it takes such a positive step towards changing the culture of vehicle usage onsite and improving its sustainability. I’m sure this initiative will inspire other businesses to follow Heathrow’s lead by using Nissan’s electric vehicles to both reduce their emissions and cut their running costs.”