NEWS > Yorkshire travel goes electric
Published: Wednesday, 02 Jun, 2010
Yorkshire streets could be humming with low carbon electric vehicles if a bid to be launched on 02 June 2010 is successful. CO2Sense Yorkshire, is leading a bid to fund the development of a network of charging points across Yorkshire. A consortium led by CO2Sense and Future Transport Systems has
Yorkshire streets could be humming with low carbon electric vehicles if a bid to be launched on 02 June 2010 is successful. CO2Sense Yorkshire, is leading a bid to fund the development of a network of charging points across Yorkshire. A consortium led by CO2Sense and Future Transport Systems has bid for a share of the GBP30m that the government have allocated to encourage people to switch to electric cars. CO2Sense Yorkshire is a business support and market development programme funded by Yorkshire Forward.
“People are reluctant to buy electric cars unless they know that they’ll be able to recharge them at their destination”, explains CO2Sense project manager Nicole Ballantine. “So we aim to set up a network of charging points in the main cities in Yorkshire, so that anyone will be able to drive from Sheffield to Leeds, York or Hull, knowing that they will be able to recharge their cars once they arrive”.
Electric cars have a range of around 60 to 100 miles – more than enough for most journeys. It costs around just a pound to fill the tank by charging the batteries, and combined with the free vehicle excise duty, electric cars could offer cheap motoring as well as being the green way to get around. Charging an electric car takes around four hours. Most of the time that can be done overnight at home, while the car is safely parked in the garage. But what happens when you need to fill up during your journey?
“It’s a case of changing our habits,” says Matthew Lumsden, Managing Director of Future Transport Systems. “Most people spend at least an hour in the supermarket, and longer at a retail park. Electric car owners will simply plug them in to charging points in the car parks, and the cars will be fully charged by the time they’ve finished shopping.”
The team at CO2Sense and Future Transport Systems are planning to involve retailers, car park owners and local authorities in the bid. If it’s successful, construction could start by the end of the year.
“Yorkshire is the ideal place to do this,” says Nicole. “With our motorway network – the M1, M62 and M18, we have transport corridors running North to South and East to West. It’s the ideal region to encourage people to use electric cars to get around.”
Power to the people
Plugged-In Places is a government initiative, launched in November 2009, that will create the recharging infrastructure. GBP30 million will be available to consortia in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland made of local authorities, businesses, electricity distributors and suppliers and other organisations like the Regional Development Agencies. A first round of funding has already been allocated to London, Milton Keynes and the North East. A second round of funding will be assessed later this year.
<< Go Back
|
