The Tower of London is known as the home of ravens, Beefeaters and the Crown Jewels – but it will surely soon become famous as the some of a new electric vehicle.
Okay, that’s a bit of an exaggeration, but eagled-eyed recent visitors to the 950-plus-year-old landmark might have spotted an electric Goupil G2 cage body electric vehicle being used to help keep things running smoothly.
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The new, er, Crown Jewel in the Tower’s line-up of maintenance machines, the Goupil has been supplied by British firm Bradshaw Electric Vehicles, which manufactures and imports a range of industrial EVs. The French-built Goupil line-up includes a range of road-legal light commercial vehicles suitable for gardening, bin collections and deliveries.
The Goupil G2 that has been used at the Tower of London since last year has a pick-up bed, a protective cage and a van-style body, and can carry payloads of up to 600kg with a top speed of 18mph and a range of around 60 miles.
According to Dom Oughton, the Tower of London’s maintenance and facilities chief, the machine has been used to transport goods and parcels, and collect waste. He didn’t mention whether it has been used to carry the Crown Jewels or prisoners from the Tower on their way to being executed.
Oughton said: “We needed a new vehicle to support us during what we knew would be a very busy period, with a programme of high profile summer events and it has done that perfectly.
“We went with Bradshaw as I was already familiar with the company from a previous role. Also, we have a very old electric vehicle of theirs here at the Tower which is probably about 20 years old and still used by our postman.”
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