Low carbon energy firm SSE is leading the charge on EVs, as it reveals the business is ahead of schedule in switching to a fully electric fleet.
As a principal partner to world climate summit COP26, and one of the UK’s largest energy infrastructure companies, SSE has recognised the crucial role the decarbonisation of transport will play in meeting Net Zero.
In 2019 the company joined The Climate Group’s global EV100 initiative, which aims to make electric vehicles (EVs) ‘the new normal’ by 2030. And pledged to switch 2,785 of its vehicles to electric and install charging points for its 10,000 employees to use.
It has now revealed it is on track to have almost half its car fleet fully electric by early next year whilst continuing to work on transitioning it’s van fleet as more products become available.
In just over 2 years since membership the Group has already taken delivery of over 400 fully electric vehicles with another 225 on order, meaning 30% of the car fleet fully is electric and will be moving to 47% by early 2022. To support this journey the business has already installed 180 charge points across its sites, from the Isle of Wight in the south to Lerwick on Shetland, with another 200 set to be delivered in the next 12-14months.
Simon Gray, Head of Fleet and Travel for SSE plc said:
“EV uptake is growing across the UK and this is also reflected in the great progress in transitioning our fleet to fully electric. The number of ultra-low emission vehicles available is increasing year on year which greatly supports with our strategies and Net Zero initiatives.
“Our network’s business SSEN has committed to invest in its network infrastructure to support 10 million EVs on GB roads by 2030.
Article continues below this advertisement “But as one of the largest fleet operators in the UK we must also lead by example and show the way on the EV journey.
“That’s why as a member of The Climate Group’s global EV100 initiative, which aims to make electric vehicles (EVs) ‘the new normal’ by 2030, SSE Plc is already well on the way to a low carbon future following a commitment to electrify our fleet by 2030.”
Try sorting out the constant power cuts and the endless price rises before wasting millions on virtue signalling.
Lets hope they upgrade the network so they can charge them without causing power cuts.
Magnifico. Surely you meant to say “without causing more power cuts”
You are correct Phil. Apologies for the omission.
EV’s charge at night when demand is low. This helps to maintain the grid and helps to prevent power cuts due to overloads when they can not shed the over production of electric. EV’s can be setup to only charge at a give time. Read the facts before repeating the uneducated rubbish you hear in the pub.
Maybe they can be set up to recharge over night but as there is no incentive, I wonder how many people bother. Also you can only recharge them over night if you have your own charger as there will never be sufficient public chargers to leave you car attached to it all night.
You appear to be one blade shy of a sharp edge fred. Think to the future.
How many EV’s could the Isle of Wight network support before demand is significantly higher at night with charging points each drawing 7kVA alongside all the storage heaters and immersion heaters?
Not all Ev’s will charge at night. If the Isle of Wight council wishes to maintain it’s tourist industry and help reduce CO2 emmissions it will have to make sure that a decent number of fast charging points for vehicles are available for both visitors and residents.
Add to this the additional load from ground and air source heat pumps and we will have an electricity demand the magnitude of which is as yet completely unknown.
We no doubt could all drive an electric expensive vehicle if, like here, someone else, eg the customers are paying for them all.
Then we too could proudly ‘boast’ how green we were and get the praise, but the cost won’t be coming from the bosses huge salaries, which will continue to increase as will our bills to fund such.
I personally would expect an Electric Company to reach that target sooner.
If they are struggling to meet the target by 2030
What chance does Joe Public have!
Far better if they reduced the price of their energy.
Very true, they are milking it.