The Council’s Highways team has taken delivery of ten new electric vans that will be added to their fleet for undertaking daily duties and network management.
The new Nissan ENV200’s replace the traditional diesel-powered vehicles with the electric versions reducing emissions to zero over the diesel counterparts.
electric vehicles will reduce CO2 emissions, improve air quality and help deliver on the Council’s Climate Emergency commitment to being a carbon neutral city by 2030.
£1.4m will be invested over the next financial year with a total of 54 electric vehicles spanning many different Council departments and service areas.
Over the eight year life-cycle of each vehicle, they are expected to reduce carbon emissions by over 1,000 tonnes, reduce maintenance costs and improve air quality.
In addition to their ‘greener’ credentials, the new vans will also be quieter, thus reducing noise levels when going about their business.
The highways team maintain over 857km of carriageways and over 92,000 assets throughout the city, and the plug-in electric vans will be more than capable of having substantial travel range to cover many journeys throughout the day.
Councillor Sue Dann, Cabinet Member for Environment and Street Scene, said; “The new electric-powered vans are really impressive, they provide all the practicality required to keep the Council’s Highways team moving, while making a significant contribution to reducing emissions and improving air quality.
“We have invested in replacing fossil fuels with electric versions wherever we can and wherever the technology permits, each step will get us closer to our aim of being a carbon neutral city by 2030.”
Councillor Mark Coker, Cabinet Member for Strategic Planning and Infrastructure said; “It’s a very significant step to introduce electric-powered vehicles like these into the Highways fleet. In some cases, many fossil-fuelled vehicles remain the most viable to perform certain duties in respect of the current technology, but we will look at every opportunity of selecting a zero emission option where possible.
“As a council we want to lead by example and demonstrate that by making changes to our ways of working, you can make a positive environmental impact, this is certainly a shape of things to come, particularly with recent national announcement banning the sale of new petrol and diesel cars in 2030.”