The first all-electric breakdown van

In January 2022 the RAC became the first major UK roadside assistance company to begin using an electric patrol vehicle to attend breakdowns.

We chose a zero-emission Renault Zoe E-Tech van as it’s one of the few EVs on the market capable of carrying the necessary tools and parts needed to fix four-out-of-five breakdowns on the spot, without its range being compromised.

Dealing with around 7,000 random events every day a 200-plus mile range was a critical requirement. As no electric van is yet capable of towing broken-down vehicles, the Renault Zoe patrol van is being used to attend our two most common breakdowns – batteries and tyres – which together account for nearly half of all RAC call-outs. As such the van carries up to six replacement 12v car batteries, two tyres, a trolley jack, a battery tester, the RACScan diagnostic tool and a host of standard patrol tools.

In order to assess its efficiency as a patrol vehicle it has been put to work in a variety of settings, both urban and rural.

In May we added our second all-electric patrol van – a Maxus e DELIVER 3.