Cotswold District Council has purchased six Ashwoods Hybrid Transit vans in a bid to reduce fuel spend and carbon emissions across its fleet.
The vehicles are now being used by Ubico, which provides environmental services to the council.
A Department for Transport subsidy enabled the council to buy the vehicles for the equivalent cost of standard diesel vans.
However, as the hybrids are up to 25% more fuel-efficient than the vehicles they replace, Malcolm Carruthers, fleet services manager at Ubico, estimates annual savings of up to £5,900 in fuel costs and 10.8 tonnes of CO2.
"Cotswold District Council looked at several options for low carbon vehicles, but we agreed that Ashwoods was by far the most effective and most straightforward," states Carruthers.
"We can deploy the vehicles without any additional driver or service engineer training - and we don't need to invest in charging points or new fuel tanks."
The award-winning Ashwoods Hybrid drive system is entirely self-powered: it stores energy every time the vehicle slows down and transfers it to the wheels via an electric motor.
