ELECTRIC CAR SCHEME
SUMMARY
KEY CONTACTS
In March this year, South Lanarkshire Community Planning Partnership received funding from
the Scottish Government’s Low Carbon Vehicle Procurement Support Scheme. South
Lanarkshire Council and Strathclyde Fire & Rescue were the first organisations who agreed
to be part of the project and purchase electric vehicles. The funding allowed the partnership
to purchase thirteen electric Peugeot iOn cars along with the installation of charging points.
Both organisations benefited from the zero carbon emissions and reduced running costs that
the cars have delivered. The cars have proven to be ideally suited to local and mid range
journeys and continue to allow both organisations to promote their green credentials.
PROJECT OBJECTIVES / WHAT WE DID
The Climate Change Scotland Act 2009 has set very ambitious targets
in reducing greenhouse gas emissions including an 80% reduction in
emissions by 2050 with an interim target of 42% by 2020. Road
transport accounts for approximately 20% of these emissions and a
long term vision of the Scottish Government is to de-carbonise
transportation.
To begin the journey towards achieving these targets South
Lanarkshire Community Planning Partnership made the decision to
procure a number of 100% electric cars, and to begin to install a
charging infrastructure network across the local authority area. This
route was chosen as electric vehicles have no tailpipe emissions and
with the present electricity generation mix produce less CO² than their
petrol and diesel equivalents. It is anticipated that with improvements
to electricity generation and the national grid even less CO² will be
attributable to electric vehicles in the future.
Logo
Dave Gibson, Fleet Manager.
Adam Beattie, Engineering Officer
dave.gibson@southlanarkshire.gov.uk
Adam.beattie@southlanarkshire.gov.uk
http://www.southlanarkshire.gov.uk
HOW WE DID IT
South Lanarkshire Council engaged with partners in the South
Lanarkshire Community Planning Partnership to determine if any
partner wished to be involved with the electric car scheme, and
Strathclyde Fire and Rescue stated that they wished to participate,
however other partners were interested and may participate at a
later stage.
South Lanarkshire Council and Strathclyde Fire & Rescue secured
thirteen 100% electric Peugeot iOns, of which 12 are being
operated by the Council and one operated by Strathclyde Fire and
Rescue.
The cars were delivered in July 2011 along with the installation of
26 simple, external, waterproof charging bays in Hamilton, East
Kilbride and Cambuslang where the electric cars would be based.
The approach taken by South Lanarkshire Council was to identify
groups of staff interested in this technology and keen to participate
in the pilot. A condition of the agreement was that their Services
return an equivalent number of petrol / diesel cars. The staff using
the cars are capturing management information in relation to the
vehicles driving performance, charging times, range achieved, the
effects of temperature etc. This monitoring and evaluation is
ongoing.
NEXT STEPS
WHAT WE LEARNED
South Lanarkshire community Planning Partnership's electric car pilot
initiative has returned positive outcomes in respect of the ‘usability’ of
the vehicles. The 70+ mile range has addressed the anxiety concerns
of how far the cars will travel on one charge. The cars have
performed well in both urban and rural environments. The Peugeot
iOn has proven to be a ‘comfortable’ drive and users are accustomed
to overnight charging providing full next day use. The livery applied
continues to promote the sustainable living in South Lanarkshire.
The planned increase in the charging locations network will provide
further opportunity for the Council to deploy 100% electric vehicles
across the authority area, affording opportunity for Services to
consider the benefits of electric vehicles as they procure replacement
vehicles in the future. South Lanarkshire Council will continue to
monitor and evaluate the functional and operational opportunities that
developments in the commercial electric vehicles sector will provide.
South Lanarkshire Community Planning Partnership intend to
submit a bid to secure two further electric cars for NHS
Lanarkshire, as well as eight small electric car derived vans and
an electric pavement / precinct sweeper for the Council.
In Partnership with the Scottish Government and Transport
Scotland the Community Planning Partnership will spend £¼
million to provide an extensive electric vehicle charging network
across South Lanarkshire.
We propose to install an additional 50 charging bays at 14
locations throughout South Lanarkshire which will be available for
use by our electric fleet and also by members of the public.
This will allow travel throughout the Council area without drivers
having to worry about running out of battery.