Topic

Electric/plug-in hybrids

Caroline Gorst-Unsworth
Caroline Gorst-Unsworth • 5 March 2014

Does anybody out there have experience of increasing staff take up of electric vehicles (either as a personal purchase/lease, or of a pool car scheme)?

Our Trust are working on a sustainable transport policy and I am particularly interested in investigating how I can persuade my clinical and managerial colleagues to think about sustainable technology when buying or leasing their next car. We have an ongoing initiative to increase cycling to work, but for some people it will always be about a car (especially those who have a lot of miles to do within their busy day). Obviously we need to think about the infrastructure for recharging etc. I am going to approach several car manufacturers to see if they are willing to negotiate good terms for our staff. I was wondering if anyone else has done a similar thing and whether certain manufacturers are more willing than others to negotiate. We are quite a big mental health Trust so might have some negotiating power. For individual staff in these times of austerity, the cost will be a major factor.

Any information or experience in this area would be helpful. It has even occurred to me that if we all got together (regionally or even as NHS) we would have a better chance of a good deal.

Comments (3)

Admin *
Admin *

wow caroline all those ideas sound fantastic

have you thought about submitting for the rcpsych sustainability award, this sort of initiative is right on track!!!

otherwise, yes, electric cars are not ideal but perhaps a necessary evil whilst we have a system so heavily reliant on cars...

 

i posted a forum post a while ago on the cornwall project that managed to start using electric cars, see: 

http://www.cornwallfoundationtrust.nhs.uk/cft/News/AboutUs/ElectricCars… 

 

Otherwise i am not aware of any other initiatives for electric cars.

I have heard about an interesting project called co-wheels which is basically a car share program and I know a Trust that are trying to start working with this company to reduce environmental impacts of  staff travel...

Again this is not ideal from an environmental perspective, but at least it reduces the carbon footprint of production and maintenance of the cars.

Jacqueline Cutting
Jacqueline Cutting

Hi - I think some GP surgeries have used electric cars as a trial, and they linked up with the Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) to do this as a research piece to help local businesses. The LEP have a specific remit to help local businesses and ccordinate EU funds for each region. So - the surgery trialled the cars, the LEP funded it and the research showed how businesses could use them. University Coventry and Warks Hospital installed some electric chargers at the hospital sites (and this has been done elsewhere as I just googled it!).

There's a piece about the cars in www.gponline.com/news/article/1145089/gps-trial-electric-cars-rural-business/

and about the charging points here www.uhcw.nhs.uk/latest-news/news?action=view&newsID=575

 


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