Dundee is targeting 100% e-mobility by 2030 after a report by its city council revealed that it has one of the highest concentration of EVs of any city in the UK.
In 2018, Dundee was called the ‘most visionary city in Europe for electric vehicles’ by the World Electric Vehicle Association.
In its climate action plan, published earlier this month, Dundee City Council said that the move to e-mobility has been done by progressive policy changes and continued Council/taxi trade engagement including a reduced price for taxi testing and all new private hire vehicles having to be electric.
It also said that the charging infrastructure had grown with a mixture of publicly available and private chargers being installed. Dundee has 90 charging units across the city have done over 191,500 charging sessions, totalling an estimated 5.4 million electric miles.
In partnership with SWARCO, Dundee city council has installed three stand-alone ‘charging hubs’ for electric vehicle. More are to come, and they will gradually replace the city’s petrol stations. The hubs combine electric vehicle charging capabilities with solar canopies and energy storage.
The hubs were created to support EV taxis. The taxi industry in Dundee has also adopted the electric project. 18% of all taxis are 100% electric.
Dundee was built in the ‘bowl’ of an old volcano, meaning that emissions do not escape as they are supposed to.
“What we are looking at is the residents of the city centre putting their electric vehicles here at night and decluttering the city centre. It’s about shifting the electric vehicles about the city to create the low-emissions zone.”
In a year, Dundee has seen over 60,000 rapid charging sessions at its three hubs, and reports saving over 450 tonnes of CO2.
Other ideas the city is exploring are pop-up chargers, to help drivers without access to off-street parking, as well as a pure electric coach, travelling to Glasgow and Edinburgh from Dundee.
