Electra Commercial Vehicles has repowered 26 refuse collection vehicles for two Sussex councils and unveiled a fully electric hotbox truck built with Marvtech Truck Bodies, with managing director Ben Smith saying the refuse project “shows what’s possible when innovation and collaboration come together to deliver real-world electrification at scale.”
The refuse fleet work covers Lewes District Council and Eastbourne Borough Council, where 20 existing diesel vehicles have been converted to electric drivetrains and six more built on new chassis with refurbished bodies. Each conversion involves structural reinforcement, new wiring looms, upgraded hydraulics and a full electric drivetrain, so the finished vehicle is rated for multi-day use between charges. Electra Commercial Vehicles says the approach costs significantly less than buying new electric trucks outright, which is the main reason it is being pitched at cash-conscious fleets, a pressure also flagged in SMMT’s call to rethink the van mandate.
The company, based in the UK and known for retrofitting diesel commercial vehicles with electric powertrains, has also built an electric hotbox truck aimed at highway maintenance work, a job that has been notoriously hard to decarbonise because of the heat and payload demands involved. It pairs Electra’s eCargo SEIV 19-350 chassis with Marvtech’s e-Hotbox body, running a 280kWh lithium iron phosphate battery and a 350kW motor at 19 tonnes gross vehicle weight, with no compromise on payload. A DC fast charge takes the battery from 20 to 80 percent in under 70 minutes, meaning a vehicle can be ready for its next shift in just over an hour.
The hotbox draws its heating power directly from the vehicle’s battery through Electra’s own power take-off system, feeding six 2,500W heating elements for 15kW of total capacity. Dropping LPG from the vehicle removes onsite gas storage and open-flame risk, which the company says cuts manual handling for crews and improves health and safety compliance on site.
What this means for SME fleets
This news is aimed squarely at councils, highways contractors and waste management operators rather than the average small business van fleet, but the underlying logic applies more widely, especially as the SMMT’s call for a van mandate rethink shows how far electric vans still have to go on cost. Buying new electric commercial vehicles remains expensive, a cost pressure at the heart of SMMT’s call for a rethink of the electric van mandate, and this news landed the same week the trade body announced in its call for a van mandate rethink that electric van uptake, while at a record share, is still not moving fast enough to meet current targets. Repowering existing diesel vehicles, rather than replacing them, is one way smaller fleets can start cutting emissions without the full cost of new EVs.
For SMEs weighing that trade-off, funding is the practical sticking point. Operators looking at conversion or asset finance routes may find it worth checking the British Business Bank’s expanded performance finance facility for vehicle and asset funding, or looking at how the market for asset finance is shifting following Time Finance’s takeover by Ultimate Finance’s parent company, since both affect what lending is available for fleet conversion projects.
The news was reported by SMMT, the trade body for the UK motor industry.
What to do next
If your business runs an ageing diesel fleet, whether refuse vehicles, highway maintenance trucks or general commercial vans, it is worth asking your current supplier whether a repower or retrofit option exists before assuming a full EV replacement is the only route. Then check what asset finance or performance finance options are open to you, since the funding structure will often decide whether conversion is actually cheaper than waiting.
