The Dunedin City Council will amp up spending on electric vehicles and meet its target of owning 20 in 2021, a council spokesman says.
The council now owns five fully electric vehicles, but in May 2016 when it owned just one hybrid electric vehicle, it voted 13-0 to change its vehicle procurement plans to ensure the council owned 20 "fully electric" vehicles within five years.
The council spokesman yesterday confirmed the council was counting both battery electric vehicles (of which it now has five) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (three) towards its goal.
"The [council] plans to purchase another 12, as existing vehicles need replacement, to meet its goal of having a fleet of 20 electric vehicles by 2021," he said.
Some electric vehicle purchases planned for the 2019-20 financial year had been delayed by the Covid-19 lockdown, he said, meaning funding for these purchases were put into the 2020-21 vehicle replacement budget.
He noted at the past 10-year plan hearing in 2018 the council expected to buy "two or three electrical vehicles each year at an approximate cost of $80k to $100k per annum".
In 2016, the council had no fully electric vehicles; in 2017, it had three; in 2018, it had three; in 2019, the number increased to five.
In 2016, the council had one hybrid, that increased to three in 2018.
There are 123 vehicles in the council’s fleet, eight of them electric.
A recently released a report shows Dunedin’s car owners last year had 6.07 electric vehicles per 1000 residents, compared with second-place Wellington’s 6.01.
Hamish MacLean, ODT
