Electric cars bought: council buys two energy-efficient vehicles to start fleet upgrade

Greater Shepparton City Council continued its push to reduce electricity usage and greenhouse gas emissions by buying two Nissan Leaf electric vehicles for its fleet.

Council recently installed solar photovoltaic (PV) on key buildings in the municipality to reduce electricity usage and greenhouse gas emissions and has since turned its attention to the car fleet.

Greater Shepparton City Council chief executive Peter Harriott said the cars were ‘‘as efficient as you can get’’.

Greater Shepparton City Council has added
 two Nissan Leaf all-electric cars to its fleet.

‘‘The mayor and I have headed out to Merrigum and back and they’re just ideal for going around town for staff and for councillors to go to meetings,’’ Mr Harriott said.

‘‘If you’re doing 200 km, you’d want to come back and plug it in and get some recharge.’’

The two Nissans are powered by 100 per cent renewable energy and council hoped the vehicles would showcase that electric vehicles were feasible in a regional area.

Mr Harriott said 20 per cent of council’s emissions came from vehicle use.

‘‘It won’t be long before the full fleet of cars is electric,’’ he said.

Mr Harriott said if possible, council’s emissions target would be zero and it was participating in a program to extend the network of solar PV stations.

‘‘Technology’s changing at a pace that we can’t understand, so I think that’s realistic,’’ he said.

Shepparton News story by Edward McLeish - “Electric cars bought: council buys two energy-efficient vehicles to start fleet upgrade.”