Electric ambulances trialled in North Yorkshire

Yorkshire Ambulance Service said it was looking to renew its fleet

Electric ambulances are being trialled in North Yorkshire, councillors have been told.

Yorkshire Ambulance Service representatives told a North Yorkshire Council meeting the ambulances were being tested in urban areas.

Martin Dodd, area operations manager for North Yorkshire at the service, said the organisation was currently looking to renew its fleet.

He added: "Obviously, the problems in the rural areas continue with having the infrastructure available for electric vehicles, but it is something that we are abreast of and on top of."

"We are looking at the electric ambulances, certainly across the other areas. We have some trials ongoing at the present in some of the more urban areas," Mr Dodd said.

The ambulance service report said emergency response times continued to "see some challenges, particularly for category one and two patients, who are the most seriously ill".

However, it said the average category two response time in 2025 was 26 minutes and 48 seconds - an improvement on the average 2024 time of 30 minutes and 15 seconds.

Handover times for ambulances passing on patients to hospitals had also improved in the past year, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

The report noted that significant progress had been made in reducing handover delays across Yorkshire, with the introduction of a new "transfer of care" operating procedure.

The meeting heard that building work had also begun on the new ambulance station in Thirsk, with the steel frame constructed last week.

Mr Dodd said he hoped the station would be fully operational by the end of March 2026.

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