A RECORD-breaking deal for electric vehicles worth more than £500,000 has been signed between Hull City Council and Peugeot. The deal, for 40 electric 106 and Partner vans, comes just over a year after the previous largest deal when the Nottinghamshire Millennium Electric Vehicles Project acquired 32 electric vehicles from Peugeot.

The next largest deal was for nine Partner vans from the Royal Mail and eight Peugeot 106 vans for the London Borough of Camden. Hull City Council is negotiating for a grant from the Government-backed PowerShift fund worth about £250,000 to finalise the deal and claims it could lead to an order for a further 30 vehicles after April, creating the first £1 million order for electric vehicles.

As part of a campaign to embrace green fleet practice, electricity to recharge the vehicles will be bought from a supplier generating power through wind turbines. Garry Middleton, fleet and engineering manager for Hull City Council, who operates a fleet of about 741-vehicles, including 400 vans and 30 cars, predominantly diesel, said: 'We considered liquefied petroleum gas, but decided that the fuel was still based upon fossil fuels and non-renewable resources.

'Using electric vehicles focuses on the future and is preparing for the use of fuel cell technology, so we are taking a stepping stone down that road.' The maximum range of the Peugeots, which will be supplied through Peugeot Contract Hire, is 57 miles with a full payload, but research by the council showed that its vehicles will cover about 43 miles a day.

An analysis of the cost of running the vehicles showed the council would pay £45 a week to run a normal van, not including the cost of fuel, while the Peugeot electric vehicles cost an estimated £47 a week including fuel. The council uses 1.4 million litres of diesel a year to fuel its fleet, but the cost of the electricity would be a fraction of the cost of the diesel. Comparing the electric fleet with the fleet it replaces, it is estimated that £24,000 would be spent on diesel, compared to about £5,000 on electricity.