South Lanarkshire Council takes delivery of 141 all-electric new Renault ZOEs

South Lanarkshire Council has taken delivery of 141 all-electric new Renault ZOEs, the order being the biggest ever placed for Renault Z.E. electric vehicles in Scotland and reaffirming the Council’s commitment to implementing low-carbon travel across its operations.

The majority of the vehicles will be utilised to switch the Council's entire pool car fleet of 104 vehicles from diesel to fully electric power. The Renault ZOEs will be used by a wide range of personnel to travel throughout the Council's 20 wards and sometimes further afield to complete site visits, attend meetings and training appointments. All this business travel will now be free of carbon dioxide and NOx emissions.

The remaining 37 Renault ZOEs will be deployed across a range of council services including Roads, Housing and Technical and South Lanarkshire Leisure and Culture. When in service the new arrivals will mean 28% of the Council's small fleet will now be fully electric.

Importantly, the Council hopes that by exposing so many of its personnel to the experience and benefits of driving an electric vehicle, they will themselves consider making the change from a conventional ICE vehicle to an EV. With each Renault ZOE sporting the same distinctive livery as the Council's recently introduced new electric minibus and electric road sweeper, their use will also be a highly visible message to the public that the Council is leading by example in making the region a cleaner, healthier environment through the benefits of low carbon travel.

Funding for the New Renault ZOEs was made possible thanks to a grant of more than £1 million ($1.28 million) from Transport Scotland's Switched on Fleets Programme. The five-door superminis will be charged via charging points that are already installed throughout the South Lanarkshire Council estate, with the Council set to add more chargers in the near future.

South Lanarkshire Council considered several electric vehicles before opting for the Renault ZOE. Factors that influenced the Council's purchasing decision were availability, WLTP range of 245 miles and size, the ZOE enabling the Council to further streamline its travel thanks to having the space to comfortably transport four adults and any necessary equipment.

The Council specified its new Renault ZOEs in Play R110 specification, which as standard includes such features as automatic lights and windscreen wipers, air conditioning, cruise control, ESC (Electronic Stability Control) with ASR (Traction Control), ABS with EBD (Electronic Brake Distribution) and Emergency Brake Assist, and Renault keycard with hands-free entry. As well as its bespoke livery, South Lanarkshire Council is also adding its own telematics system to each Renault ZOE.

Chair of South Lanarkshire Council's Community and Enterprise Resources Committee, Councillor John Anderson, said: “We are delighted that these new electric vehicles will help us on our journey to reduce the amount of emissions across our entire fleet. We are aware of the Scottish Government's targets to help fight climate change and we will continue to look at new and innovative ways to help us contribute to that.”

Available from £26,495 OTR after the Plug-in Car Grant, the Renault ZOE has been extensively revised for 2020. Available in three levels of trim - Iconic, Play and GT Line - the ZOE offers a highly usable range of up to 245 miles (WLTP). With the 50KW DC rapid charge option, 90 miles of charge can be restored in only 30 minutes.

In addition to the ZOE supermini five-door hatchback, the Renault Z.E. range consists of the Twizy quadricycle, Renault Master Z.E. and Renault Kangoo Z.E.33 vans, plus the newly-launched Renault ZOE van, which combines the equipment and 245-mile range of the passenger car version with a versatile payload of 387kg (Business trim).