Wednesday 5 April 2023

Scheme for hiring EVs launched

An electric vehicle (EV) sharing scheme is being trialled in Oxfordshire.

The county and city councils are combining for the scheme, which will see 14 EVs become available for people to hire either hourly or daily.

It’s been implemented to lower traffic on roads, incentivise the use of electric cars and stop the need for people to own individual cars.

Oxfordshire County Council estimates that one of these shared EVs will remove an average of 20 individually owned cars from the roads.

To use the EVs, people will need to be members of the car club.

Oxfordshire County Council, Oxford City Council and Cherwell, South Oxfordshire, Vale of White Horse and West Oxfordshire district councils have joined for the scheme.

The region benefitted from a new £5.4 million charging investment last year – and the city of Oxford has implemented a zero-emission zone to lower pollution from cars.

Jenny Figueiredo, EV charging project manager from Oxfordshire County Council: “Providing pay per use car sharing schemes like this makes it possible for people to consider giving up their own cars or second cars and also to be more conscious of making an active decision about every journey they make.”