Other renewables

Stockholm and Vattenfall Group starting biggest Swedish purchasing of electric vehicles

This implies that the biggest Swedish purchasing of electric cars may start. “We are very happy about this positive message from the Energy Agency. Today there is tug-of-war to become a prioritized country for the electric car producers and this grant will contribute considerably to putting Sweden on the electric car map. Before a market is established, electric vehicles are expensive to produce and to buy, and therefore initial support is needed,” says Mr. Göran Lundgren, in charge of the the electric car project at Vattenfall.

”Energy efficient and silent electric cars with low emissions are needed in the Stockholm traffic. Stockholm is a world leader in the use of environment friendly cars, to a great extent because of our previous purchasing of environment friendly cars. Now we hope that we may in the same way inspire more companies in Stockholm to switch to electric cars,” says Ms. Ulla Hamilton, environment and traffic commissioner in Stockholm.

”It is great that Swedish and international automotive industries are expected to supply vehicles on this large scale. With this venture we hope to speed up the development away from dependence on oil and from the greenhouse gas emissions from the traffic in the cities,” says Mr. Tomas Kåberger, Director-General of the Swedish Energy Agency.

The purchasing will be carried in to phases; first the so-called initial fleet and then the main purchasing.

The initial fleet will consist of 50 electric vehicles and the customers may receive a compensation of 25 percent of the additional cost, however a maximum of SEK 100 000 per vehicle. An application may be submitted up till August, 2010, and deliveries will start already towards the end of the year.

The main purchasing has a 6000 vehicle goal. As a “carrot”, the first customers will receive a compensation of a maximum SEK 50 000 as a compensation for the additional cost. This compensation is expected to cover at least 1000 vehicles. The cars will be delivered in 2011 and 2012.

An additional SEK 7M to cover project costs is included in the Energy Agency grant. The purchasing is intended for both public and private actors in the cities of Stockholm, Göteborg and Malmö, but other areas and private individuals may also apply for the compensations.

The Vattenfall Group and the City of Stockholm are making a major effort to introduce electric cars in Sweden through a joint purchasing of electric cars for companies as well as municipalities. Their intention is that already models launched in 2011 and 2012 will roll in the streets of Stockholm.

In a pre-study for the purchasing, more than 100 companies and organisations showed an interest corresponding to 14 000 cars. Thanks to the grant from the Energy Agency, this purchasing may now be initiated.

On April 12th a joint seminar was carried out with presentations of the companies that are able to deliver an initial fleet in June, 2011, at the latest.

www.vattenfall.com