As efforts continue to make London the electric vehicle capital of Europe, Transport for London has added four Mitsubishi i-MiEVs to its fleet.
The four vehicles are partly funded by the Government’s Low Carbon Procurement Partnership and is the first step in an effort to bring 1,000 electric vehicles to the city’s fleet by 2015. Most of the vehicles will be used by the Metropolitan Police Service.
Increasing the number of electric vehicles in the fleet is just one part of a plan to boost electric vehicle numbers to 100,000 by 2020. In addition, 1,600 charging points will be installed across the capital during the coming year with the aim of having 25,000 points in place by 2015. The hope is that the average Londoner will be no further than a mile away from a charge point at any time.
Later this year, a London-wide brand for electric vehicles will also be launched so drivers can identify where a charging point is located. There will also be a new website that provides a one-stop service of information on electric vehicles and charging points.
As electric vehicles have no direct emissions, this should lead to improvements in air quality and reductions in climate change emissions. According to estimates, 100,000 electric vehicles could reduce London’s carbon output by nearly 500,000 tonnes over the next 10 years, saving 100,000 tonnes of nitrogen oxides and several tonnes of PM10 emissions too.
