Pittwater Life September 2018 Issue

News
Taking charge of car fleet future
Northern Beaches Council could
become the first Australian local
government body to invest in
a fully electric car fleet under a plan
steered by Mayor Michael Regan.
Council staff are currently undertaking
a feasibility study on the proposal,
which will be presented to councillors
for consideration before
Christmas.
Cr Regan told Pittwater Life investigating
the take-up of an electric
car fleet made economic sense
given the spiraling cost of fuel.
He added it would also reaffirm
Council’s position as a responsible
environmental player.
“Currently we have a variety
of light fleet vehicles including
sedans, SUVs and PHEVs (plug-in
hybrid electric vehicles) which are
used by our library and children’s
services staff as well as rangers,” he
said. “These amongst other vehicles are
the vehicles we would look to replace.”
He said it made sense to pursue full electric
vehicle options when a car could travel
beyond 400 kilometres on just one charge.
Currently two million electric cars
are in use around the world – a tenfold
increase over the past five years and
representative of around one per cent of
annual new car sales.
Two thirds of the world’s electric cars
are on roads in the US, Japan and China,
with the latter having the greatest number
at more than 650,000.
A recent report in the national media
stated that up to seven models of full
electric vehicles will be available from
early 2019. Further, Volkswagen, the
world’s biggest car manufacturer, is
targeting three million electric car sales
per year by 2025.
“Rising fuel prices and servicing costs
will continue to impact on the costs
of maintaining Council’s fleet and so
Council has the opportunity to look
to procuring full electric vehicles to
ensure that costs can be kept to a minimum,”
Cr Regan said.
He added he understood some manufacturers
were keen to negotiate
with organisations to establish
‘early adopters’ to drive demand
for the vehicles up in the market
and bring pricing down.
“We need to proactively engage
with the manufacturers early and
test the market to see what advantages
there are to evolving our
fleet into a more balanced one,
with less reliance on now highcost
fossil fuels and minimum
ongoing service costs,” he said.
“Council would need to consider
the full business case but with the
range of full electric sedans and SUVs
now beyond 400km on one charge, and
potentially zero servicing costs, it may
well be time to consider a bulk purchase.”
Council will also explore dedicating
more charging stations across the region
to support not only electric cars, but
electric bikes and scooters. – Nigel Wall
8 SEPTEMBER 2018
The Local Voice Since 1991