“The fleet of vehicles we stood to inherit following substantial growth of our metering business in that part of the country had average CO2 emissions of 174g/km,” says Chris Pascall, EDF Energy's head of transport. “By replacing it with Partner Origins we will immediately benefit from an 18 per cent CO2 reduction in the South West region.

“The CO2 emissions of our vans are a key consideration for us, so we'll be looking seriously at the Bipper for introduction next year,” he continues. In diesel guise its CO2 output is a modest 119g/km.

EDF aims to chop CO2 emissions from its transport activities by 20 per cent by 2012. It already runs 207 Vans, Experts and Boxers as well as Partners.