Scottish Government allocates £4.2 million to support use of electric cars
Public bodies in Tayside and Fife have been given a share of £4.2 million to help buy more low-carbon vehicles for their transport fleets.
Questions have been asked about the effectiveness of electric cars already in the Dundee Contract Services fleet.
- Published in the Courier : 25.10.11
- Published online : 25.10.11 @ 05.31pm
The Scottish Government has awarded the money to Scotland's 32 community planning partnerships, which bring together public bodies and voluntary services in each council area.
Dundee City, Perth and Kinross and Angus will each receive £47,000 to improve infrastructure — such as installing more charging points for electric vehicles —and £78,000 to pay for more electric vehicles.
Fife Council will receive £97,000 and £159,000 respectively.
Money has been allocated based on the total population of each council area.
Infrastructure and Capital Investment Minister Alex Neil said the funding will help reach the target of cutting emissions by 42% by 2020.
Earlier this year Dundee City Council was forced to defend the purchase of four Mitsubishi i-MiEV electric cars — which cost £23,990 each — for Dundee Contract Services staff as part of a pilot project.
One worker claimed the cars were rarely used by employees as they were too small to carry any building supplies.
However, a council spokesman said on Monday that the vehicles are saving the local authority thousands of pounds in fuel costs.
''The cost of running the car for 3,000 miles is £46 in electricity costs compared to the £660 it would cost for diesel,'' he said.
''The pilot initiative will save us around £12,000 a year and also cause a reduction in CO2 emissions of something like 4.5 metric tonnes.
''They are used in a car pool for site visits and are out of the depot for at least 70% of the working day.''
02.43pm - 26.10.2011 mark - dundee, scotland Report This
someone is trying to put a positive spin on this, we are not saving any money by using these electric cars, Its costing us, the taxpayer, way more than using petrol driven cars 1. the cars cost more than a petrol car. 2. we dont need to spend 47k on infrastructure using petrol cars.
10.38am - 27.10.2011 George - dundee, Scotland Report This
You wouldn't think we were facing one of the biggest financial crisis since the Depression if we can afford to throw away millions on this useless project. It really beggars belief.
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