I've had a quick look at Mellor's Sigma 7 electric offering. Looks impressive; still (inevitably) much more expensive than a diesel alternative, but would probably outlast the diesel with lower maintenance costs, even if you factor in replacement batteries at some stage, so might well be an economic Best Buy

Hino (Toyota's industrial arm) make some excellent tough well proven vehicles, not what you would always call cutting edge technology but like their smaller Landcruiser/Hilux range are built to do a job reliably for many years and usually able to be fixed in the field unlike so many modern vehicles which can only be recovered these days for things that should need that. Very old fashioned in some ways and none the worse for that, if it aint broke don't fix it, Toyotas electronics are reliable and it's usually electrical/sensor problems these days.

Recovery is easy if expensive (over £1000 for a 150 mile breakdown tow-in) when in a western country, not something you want to be doingor even possible through hundreds of miles of anything from desert to jungle where the stricken vehicle itself despite being purpose built for the job can only just make progress.

Hino did have a presence in the UK with highly respected trucks, mainly tippers, shipped to Ireland in kit form and assembled there, but they don't seem to want to get too involved with the ever more difficult euro 6/7 regs and who can blame them, these emission systems make vehicles over expensive and unreliable and there's no need for Hino to bother with all that faff when they can sell all the vehicles they want to other countries who have needs of simple durable vehicles that just do the job reliably year in year out.

Of the eurpoean makes i can only speak in relation to trucks, which are closely related to buses and coaches and usually serviced/inspected at the relevant truck dealer site anyway unless the bus company have their own in house workshops.

Whilst other makes offer decent enough vehicles it's dealer attitude determination competence and parts back up which makes the world of difference (commercial workshops a world apart from cars), in our area and other areas where we have depots Scania knock spots off all other makes, its getting to the point that Scania don't need to make their vehicles any better than anyone else's because the service workshops are increasingly important when operators are selecting vehicles...the other makes simply don't get it, yet, well good luck with the lack of attitude as the current downturn gathers pace chaps.