What Van? Britain's biggest and best van buyers' guide

Cutting emissions to improve air quality in our cities and cut environmental damage is the biggest challenge facing the UK LCV industry, with the explosion in dotcom shopping bringing increasing numbers of delivery vans into urban areas.

Pure-electric technology continues to advance and may provide a long-term solution, but problems remain to be overcome with range and charging infrastructure, and for the time being the numbers of electric models in operation represent a drop in the ocean of the overall LCV parc.

So when Ford develops a practical, ready-to-go vehicle that offers businesses a way to cut emissions and escape congestion charges without compromising their operations, the industry sits up and takes notice.

The Ford Transit Custom medium van is by far the UK’s most popular LCV, and the latest addition to the line-up is a plug-in hybrid version, the Transit Custom PHEV.

The beauty of the PHEV is that by combining a petrol motor with a battery it can end range anxiety by travelling long distances intercity but switch to zero-emissions in urban settings.

While such hybrid technology does exist elsewhere – in the LEVC London taxi and van, for example – as the major volume player in the light commercial sector Ford is introducing it to a potentially much larger market.

The brand claims the Custom PHEV will account for 10% of the model range’s total sales within two years. In the year to the end of October, Ford had sold 45,866 Custom vans, according to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, more than twice as many as the UK’s second best-seller, its big brother the 2.0t Transit.

Ford trialled the Custom PHEV in London, which operates an Ultra Low Emission Zone, with businesses including Heathrow Airport, Sky, Speedy Hire, Transport for London, British Gas and Vodafone. With a claimed zero-emission range of 35 miles, the manufacturer believes that in the short to medium term the Custom PHEV presents the most practical option available for operators trying to meet clean-air targets in cities before the charging infrastructure is improved and the battery ranges of pure-electric vans extended.

“Businesses still have legitimate concerns about the range of fully electric vehicles, as well as their cost-effectiveness and reliability,” says Mark Harvey, director of Ford’s Urban Electrified Van programme. “These trials have helped Ford and its customers to investigate the extent to which PHEVs can help to achieve urban air quality goals, whilst not compromising on productivity.”