British Gas has ordered a thousand all-electric Vivaro-e vans from Vauxhall in what’s said to be the largest commercial battery electric vehicle ever in the UK.

The vans will arrive over the next 12 months and be rolled out nationwide across the British Gas engineer workforce.

Centrica, owner of British Gas, has committed to electrifying its 12,000 strong fleet by 2030 and says it’ll be making further orders with Vauxhall for electric vehicles as soon as they are available. This may include the all-electric Combo-e – available from Summer 2021.

The engineers who receive the new vans will be chosen from volunteers but also targeting areas where it is important to lower emissions and where a van already needs replacing. British Gas will install chargers at engineer homes and says it is currently training engineers in EV charging and is accelerating EV adoption for homes and businesses with charger installs and EV tariffs.

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps (pictured) called it a “huge step for such an iconic British company”.