·¬ÇÑÊÓƵapp Council continues to build its green transport fleet and has just taken delivery of 20 new Ultra Low Emission Vehicles, partially funded by the Scottish Government.
Through Transport Scotland’s Switched-on Fleets Grant, for every three-year lease paid for by the council, the Scottish Government will pay the lease for an additional vehicle. This is conditional on the council taking a diesel car off the road for each new vehicle added.
The Scottish Government has already stated its intention to end the sale of new petrol or diesel cars in Scotland by 2032.
The council has just taken delivery of 20 Mitsibushi Outlander Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles (PHEV) commercial vans. Still on order are 10 Mitsibushi Outlander PHEV cars and 10 Toyota Prius PHEV cars. Once all the vehicles are delivered the council fleet will have 46 electric vehicles, which is 10% of the fleet.
The new vehicles are replacements for older cars and vans in the fleet which will be removed.
PHEV vehicles are more suitable to the geography of ·¬ÇÑÊÓƵapp because they offer different modes of driving. The electric engine has a range of around 30 miles. On the petrol engine they have a range of 400 miles, or they can run on a combination of electric and petrol engines. The on-board batteries can be charged from Public Charge points, and while the engine is running it regenerates the energy lost through braking forces.
Councillor Robin Currie, Policy Lead for Housing, Roads and Infrastructure Services, said: “·¬ÇÑÊÓƵapp as a whole has embraced electric vehicles. In 2018, 4.5% of cars sold here were electric, which was second highest in the country. Technology is coming on in leaps and bounds. We now have ultra-low emission vehicles that suit the long distances council staff have travel to carry out their day-to-day work.
“As a council we are committed to finding ways of beating climate change. Grants like Switched-on Fleets mean we can accelerate the switch-over to cleaner energy. Moving to a new type of engine also provides training and development opportunities for our staff, particularly our apprentices.
“I’d also like to take this opportunity to thank our supplier, Parks of Hamilton. The team there pulled out all the stops to get the vans delivered during the COVID-19 crisis and we are very grateful.â€