U.K.-based NEP Connect has announced the delivery of 16 eco-friendly news gathering vehicles to U.K. broadcaster ITV. In February 2022, NEP Connect, part of the NEP Group global network, signed a multi-million pound contract with ITV, to provide its next generation of newsgathering vehicles for regional and national ITV News coverage. For more than a year NEP Connect engineers have worked alongside the technical experts from ITV’s news teams to design three types of state-of-the-art, plug-in hybrid news gathering vehicles, custom-built to serve ITV’s connectivity and sustainability needs.
Fourteen of the 16 vehicles are plug-in hybrids, offering 35 miles of zero-emission driving. With two external plug-in points, the vehicles deliver both when they are in transit and when they are covering major stories using onboard batteries, rather than diesel generators powering the connectivity and production facilities. Although the two larger national events vehicles are not hybrid, they utilise battery power for the production and connectivity equipment, offering several hours of zero emissions news gathering operation.
