Vertellus boosts EV Discovery Programme with 10 fully electric refrigerated trucks

Vertellus has added 10 fully electric refrigerated trucks to its EV Discovery Programme, the UK’s first BEV Equipment as a Service. This marks a significant step in making EV trials affordable and accessible for operators in temperature-controlled transport. The ten new 18-tonne Renault Trucks E-Tech D Wide rigids are equipped with 1.5 tonne Dhollandia tail lifts and temperature-controlled Slipstream bodies by Solomon Commercials, mounted with engineless Carrier Transicold Iceland 11 Multi-Temperature (MT) systems accompanied by the company’s Power Box unit, delivering for customers with zero emissions in use.

As part of the EV Discovery Programme, the new trucks are available nationwide. They offer operators in temperature-controlled transport an all-inclusive solution to hire a ready-to-work electric vehicle for a three-month term. The vehicle is delivered with a DC charger installed at its operating base, alongside maintenance and support.

The Carrier Transicold Iceland 11 MT works with the Power Box, which operates like an electronic power take-off. The Power Box takes energy from the given vehicle’s driveline and converts it into the required AC current and frequency to run the Iceland unit. From an operational perspective, the Carrier Transicold system achieves more than 95% efficiency when converting energy from the electric driveline to power the refrigeration system, with the complete setup ensuring rapid temperature pull-down capability and PIEK-compliant performance.

Ian Seager, Vertellus sales and business director, said: “We are on a mission to de-risk EV trials, and these latest vehicles are a significant investment in our fleet that gives operators in the cold chain the opportunity to trial a zero-emission vehicle affordably, at a fraction of the cost of purchasing an electric vehicle, whilst putting the vehicle to work.”

“Our EV Discovery programme enables businesses to understand how electric vehicles can work in their fleet and plan their move to a sustainable and greener fleet.  By working with leading partners such as Solomon and Carrier Transicold, we ensure all our customers experience the very best when they test the potential of electric vehicles in their logistics network.”