The quiet change to Cornwall Fire and Rescue Service’s fleet

Next time a fire officer’s car pulls up at an emergency in Cornwall, listen closely. You might not hear much at all.

Cornwall Fire and Rescue Service is now using electric vehicles as part of its emergency fleet. The blue-light response cars and support vehicles are being used by officers to attend emergencies and carry out safety checks.

They have replaced older models and will help cut the fire service’s transport emissions.

48 electric vehicles and counting

Ben Goddard, Watch Manager (Assets) at Cornwall Fire and Rescue Service, said the push came from looking at the service’s biggest source of fuel use.

“The fire service has quite a number of vehicles. A lot of them obviously are very large and use a lot of fuel,” he said. “So we’ve been looking as a service at where we can improve our tailpipe emissions.”

The service currently has 48 electric vehicles in its fleet. Of those, 16 are blue-lit officer response cars and the rest sit in the support fleet.

And it isn’t a recent experiment. Ben said the service has had electric vehicles since 2021.

“These are not new vehicles added to the fleet,” he said. “These have replaced diesel vehicles that we had in fleet beforehand.”

From the east of the county to Land’s End

Richard Keast, Group Manager (Assets), said the cars had been put through their paces during a very busy summer of wildfire incidents, on top of the service’s normal day-to-day work, covering the length of Cornwall from the east right down to Land’s End.

“For me, as a response officer, they are absolutely superior over anything that we’ve had previously,” he said. “Being a new vehicle, EV, they’re so easy to drive. They’re very responsive.”

He said the acceleration helps when manoeuvring around other vehicles on a call, and “just puts us in a much safer position”.

The quieter cabin has a practical benefit too. Officers stay in contact with fire control by mobile phone or radio, and Richard said it is “a lot clearer for us when we’re in the cabin to be able to hear those communications”.

What about the range?

Richard acknowledged that some people worry about battery range. But he said the models now in use have a range of over 200 miles, and that has never been an issue for him.

Officers have access to charging wherever they are, including home chargers.

“I’ve never had the experience of running out of fuel,” he said.

Cheaper to keep on the road

Ben said one of the benefits is lower servicing costs. A service on an electric vehicle is generally a change of brake fluid and air filters, “so there’s a cost reduction associated with that”.

The service can also track every vehicle and see how much energy each one uses.

Ben said that “directly correlates to a reduction in the amount of diesel that’s being used by the service, and tailpipe emissions in and around Cornwall.”

📷One of Cornwall Fire and Rescue Service's electric officer response cars. Credit: Cornwall Council