ELECTRIC CAR SCHEME SUMMARY 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 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. KEY CONTACTS Dave Gibson, Fleet Manager. Adam Beattie, Engineering Officer Logo 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. 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. NEXT STEPS 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.