A SHINY new electric car has hit the streets of the shire.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
or signup to continue reading
It is the first electric vehicle, to be utilised by Hepburn Shire Council's cleaning team, to be introduced to the council's fleet.
Sustainability Officer Dominic Murphy is currently putting together a business case for a heavy vehicle - a truck.
Mr Murphy said an electric truck would be a good investment as trucks burn through a lot of fuel and have high maintenance costs.
It is exciting because it would make us the first regional council in Australia to have one, if we are able to do it.
- Dominic Murphy
As there are solar panels at the Daylesford Works Depot, where the car will be charged, the electric vehicle consumes almost no resources, if charged during the day.
The car needs to be charged each day and can travel 264 kilometres on a full charge, though this is less in real world driving.
Mr Murphy said an electric vehicle charged with solar used significantly less emissions than its fossil fuel counterpart.
He said the council had its toward zero roadmap which addressed emissions from council operations and was preparing to release its Z-Net Community Transition Plan.
Sustainable transport makes up about 30 per cent of the Z-Net plan, with research revealing that electricity and fuel usage locally are equivalent.
"We are hitting a lot of technical challenges with renewable generations versus demand so things like load shifting and storage are becoming increasingly important, so because electric vehicles already require storage to function, they offer a pathway to level out the peaks and troughs of generation," Mr Murphy said.
"So while we are doing energy efficient works on our sites, there is still an outstanding fuel element that needs to be addressed and this is the best way to do that," he said.
"[The car] is a pilot in that we are watching what the running costs and what the real world range is like pretty closely," he said.
"It's much cheaper to run an electric over a fuel vehicle. It will save us about three tonnes of emissions each year. With the combination of solar and grid power we will charge this vehicle with, we are expecting half the emissions of a petrol car with the payback about five years."
There are currently a number of charging stations across the shire. Chief Executive Officer Evan King said as charging stations were rolled out, the ability to be able to use electric vehicles as a more mainstream means of transport was becoming more possible, but the council was continuing to weigh up the right path to take.
