Half a million pounds is being invested in electric cars for Gloucestershire by the county council.

The council wants to spend the £470,000 on things like building electric vehicle chargers on Gloucestershire’s residential streets and lobbying other local authorities to use vehicles which have lower emissions, according to a council document.

A recent Air Quality workshop at the authority drew up some ideas to use the hundreds of thousands of pounds to pump into the scheme, including:

  • Piloting different types of roadside EV charging equipment in residential streets
  • Working with taxi operators and district licensing authorities to encourage greater take up of Ultra Low Emission Vehicles (ULEV)
  • Working with bus operators on depot infrastructure to support the use of electric buses on short distance urban routes through Air Quality Management Areas;
  • Encouraging small businesses to switch from diesel to ULEV vans for local deliveries (e.g. Free EV Miles).

Gloucestershire County Council’s Environment and Communities Scrutiny committee will be handed the report at a meeting on November 7, from 10am.