ALLIED Vehicles, the Glasgow manufacturer of special purpose vehicles such as taxis, wheelchair accessible cars and minibuses, yesterday said it had won a contract to supply the government with electric vans.

Allied, which has its headquarters in Possil district in the north of Glasgow and employs a staff of 350, said it had secured a contract to supply lithium-ion battery- powered Peugeot Boxer vans to the Department for Transport.

Under the government's guidelines, the department's low carbon vehicle procurement programme, which is managed by Cenex, is to encourage large public fleets to move to low carbon vehicles.

Some £20m of funding is available to selected public sector partners to help towards the purchase of low carbon vans, including Allied's all-electric Peugeot Boxer - although no specific value or the number of vehicles was divulged for the contract with Allied.

Powered by lithium-ion battery technology, the vehicles have a range of more than 100 miles and can be plugged into single (ordinary household) or triple phase (industrial) sockets to recharge. The vehicles produce zero emissions when in operation.

Gerry Facenna, Allied's chairman, said: "We have invested substantial funding and effort over the past four years in ensuring that the electric vehicle project that we bring to market is of the highest quality.

"Our inclusion in this innovative national project represents a vote of confidence in electric vehicles and will provide a real impetus for their integration in working fleets."

Last month Allied revealed that 40 electrically-powered people carriers, based on a Peugeot people carrier and developed and produced at the company's Possilpark plant, were being rolled out across Glasgow as part of a £25m government-backed programme.

Glasgow City Council is understood to be investigating possible uses for electric vehicles, for example as electric bin lorries or cleaning trucks.