Region pins its hopes on generating cars for the future

Jun 24 2009 By The Journal and Evening Gazette

Council all charged up for greener city travel

ELECTRIC taxi ranks could be set up in Newcastle as charging points are introduced across the city.

Newcastle Council has six charging points in place now, and hopes to have 40 across Tyneside by the end of the year.

Later this year, 10 Smith Electric Vehicle-built taxis will be introduced for city travel, alongside a council plan to see most of their car fleet replaced with electric models over the next few years.

The move means Newcastle will have a working electric vehicle infrastructure system in place just as Nissan finalise plans to build their new range of eco-friendly cars next year.

David Slater, executive director for environment and regeneration, said: "In a sense we are funding the cost of any vehicles that are involved with the trials and we are looking to replace our fleet with as many electric and hybrid vehicles as possible. Our key role is to put the infrastructure in place across the city.

"One part of that will be the taxis. If it takes off, they may put in charging points of their own, just as we put in charging points at the civic centre."

Asked how long it would be before the majority of the council fleet was electric, Mr Slater said: "At the moment this is just a pilot, so we will want to evaluate the trial and see if it is producing the benefits expected.

"But we replace the vehicles every three, five or seven years, depending on the vehicle, so if this works we can start to a see a significant number using this technology. At the moment, not everything is suitable. We have some vehicles that have to travel a long way and as the range on these electric vehicle is about 80 to 100 miles normally, they may not replace those. But for just running round the city there is nothing to stop us switching over."

Many of those cars are likely to come from Smith Electric Vehicles, based in Washington.

Dan Jenkins, from Smith owners the Tanfield Group, said the North East partnership wanted to see the work focus less on research and more on design and rolling out of the cars.

"I think we have a North East-wide project here, not just something for Newcastle. For us this underpins our expertise, which is world leading."

The Tanfield group is hoping to move from producing vans and trucks to making commercially available passenger vehicles.