Cool! It’s an electric Nissan ice-cream van

Ice-creams vans, much as we love them, need to clean up their act. Running those clattery diesel smog-factories all day, to power their refrigerators? Near the lungs of our children? This is 2019. Surely we can do better. 

Nissan thinks so. It’s teamed up with ice-cream maker Mackie’s of Scotland to make this: an e-NV200 electric ice-cream van. 

It’s fully kitted out with a soft-serve machine, freezer drawer and drinks fridge, all powered by one of Nissan’s reclaimed 'Roam' battery – cells living a second life after previous service in a Leaf electric car. They’re charged up from a regular 230-volt wall socket, or topped-up by solar panels on the roof. 

That’ll be no use in England, of course. Have you seen our weather? Look, it’s even cloudy in the pictures. At the beach. Meanwhile, the van retains its 40kWh battery pack and 124-mile range. 

You’d imagine a silent e-van would benefit from playing a cheery musical tune as it goes about its business. Instead of a speaker playing a jingle to attract customers, the concept van “has a smart button that generates a tweet of the van’s precise location using the global addressing service What3Words". And once you’ve been served, you cough up with contactless payment. 

Better than coughing up a load of ancient Transit van exhaust, though. We like this idea. Wonder if it costs hundreds and thousands to buy?