Wrexham Council Invests In Electric Cars

Wrexham Council's Andy Lewis (Head of Housing and Public Protection) and Phil Walton (Strategic and Performance Director) with the new Nissan Leaf electric car.

Wrexham Council has invested in two new electric cars in a drive to cut carbon emissions and save money and energy.

The two Nissan Leaf cars will be used by the authority’s Housing and Environment departments for day-to-day duties.

The zero-emission vehicles were part funded by the UK government’s Plug in Car Grant and were bought to demonstrate the council’s commitment to reducing its carbon footprint.

Introducing the cars will also see the authority make significant financial savings.

In the Nissan Leaf, charging the car for a 76 mile journey costs just £2.88, filling a similar sized petrol car for the same journey would cost £10.53. The cars are also not eligible for road tax.

Both cars are being used in and around the county borough for various duties including the courier service, surveyors’ site visits, site inspections as well as to attend meetings.

They were purchased as part of a pilot scheme and further vehicles may be introduced if they are successful.

The scheme follows Wrexham Council’s successful plans to install 30,000 solar panels on its social housing stock.

Phil Walton, Strategic and Performance Director and the Lead on the council’s Carbon Reduction Programme, said: “At Wrexham Council we have a very strong environmental and carbon reduction policy and the introduction of electric cars ties in with our aim to reduce our carbon footprint by 50% by 2015/16.

“Staff travel contributes to our carbon footprint and one of the ways we can help to reduce that is through the use of electric cars.

“We have already received very positive feedback from staff that have used the vehicles and we hope to be able to add more electric cars to our fleet in the future.”