Nissan e-NV200

Price from £20,005

0-62mph 14 seconds

Top speed 76mph

Range 199.6 km (battery only)

Battery 40kWh

The heatwave means that the queues for cooling ice-creams will be longer than ever this weekend. But the old vans with their idling engines are also churning out harmful emissions to the parents and kids waiting in line. Close your eyes and you can almost hear the throb of the engine and taste the smell of diesel exhaust in the back of your throat.

It is an issue which is prompting councils across the UK to consider banning them in town centres, while older vans in London face huge costs to park up in the capital’s Ultra Low Emission Zone. But all is not lost: Nissan has teamed up with ethical ice-cream producer Mackie’s of Scotland to create an all-electric, zero-emission ice-cream van – the first in the country. The prototype, which is based on Nissan’s e-NV200 electric van, has been fitted with a soft-serve machine, freezer drawer and drinks fridge. Ice cream is served from a hatch that opens in the side of the vehicle. It also has contactless bank card and smartphone payments via a ‘tap-and-pay’ panel mounted on the side.

The van has a range of up to 124 miles between charges, courtesy of the 40kWh battery, while its equipment is powered by Nissan’s Energy ROAM – a portable power pack that uses lithium-ion cells upcycled from old electric vehicles. The power packs can then be recharged from solar panels on the van’s roof. But what about the jingle? That’s been replaced with smart button that generates a tweet of the van’s precise location… You can have such a thing as too much progress.

Email Martin at martin.love@observer.co.uk or follow him on Twitter@MartinLove166