Prius joins British Army

The British Army has taken delivery of a fleet of 50 Toyota Prius as part of its ongoing mission to reduce emissions of gases known to damage the environment.

White Fleet, the branch of Headquarters Land Forces which manages the army's 6,600 non-deployable administrative vehicles, is meeting a government target to ensure all cars procured between 2007 and 2011 produce less than 130 g/km of CO2.

The Prius, which produces just 104 g/km of CO2, replaces 50 Vauxhall Vectras, whose figuress are 154 g/km. The replacement contract comes at no extra cost to the army and is the UK's Ministry of Defence's biggest commitment to date to the use of hybrid vehicles. White Fleet is determined to drive down CO2 emissions with further deals before 2011 to arrive at a figure well below the 130 g per kilometre target.

Brigadier Mark Armstrong, who as Director Infrastructure leads the Army's sustainable development projects, said, "Our vehicles are constantly being changed over because they have reached a certain mileage or a certain life. When we change our vehicles we are looking for value for money but also having in mind those targets the Government has set us on sustainable operations."

"Taking delivery of this fleet of hybrid vehicles, whose carbon emissions are below the 2011 targets set to us at HQ Land Forces by the Government, means we are ahead of schedule in terms of what the White Fleet produces."

No word has been mentioned about whether the fleet will have the optional machine-gun mounts.