Mansfield District Council’s first electric vehicle has hit the road as part of its ambition to be a carbon neutral authority by 2040.
The Maxus eDeliver 9 van is being used by plumbers in the housing repairs team and will be charged overnight at council depots.
It is one of the first batch of electric vehicles (EVs) for MDC to start to phase out older diesel vehicles at the end of their economic life.
The new van is expected to do about 130 miles on a single battery charge, which will cost around £1.50. This is estimated to be a tenth of the cost of using diesel.
The new vehicles will be monitored and evaluated on their performance on fuel costs, value for money, and cutting emissions over the coming year and if successful will pave the way to a wider vehicle replacement roll-out in the council fleet.
Executive Mayor Andy Abrahams said: ‘We are really excited to be moving forward with replacing the council’s vehicles with EVs. It is a major investment but it makes so much sense both in economic terms and in cutting carbon emissions.
‘Getting over 100 miles on the road for less than the cost of three pints of milk has to be a good move. We hope this will be part of a wider roll-out of EVs in the council fleet.’
