Manchester Airport trial electric cars to cut emissions
13.05.09
Manchester Airport has added a low-emission Smart Car to its vehicle fleet as part of a drive to make its ground operations carbon neutral. It is aiming to be carbon neutral for its ground operations by 2015, and the Smart Car is the first of several initiatives that it hope will take it to the target.
A significant amount of carbon associated with the operation of the airport is the passenger and staff transport made to the airport, and it is an area that the operator is looking to influence. The Smart Car has been allocated to Manchester as part of a Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform-funded partnership in conjunction with the Centre of Excellence for Low Carbon and Fuel Cell Technologies and Daimler Fleet management.
100 vehicles have been made available for corporate entities in the trial, as the vehicles are not yet readily available on market. To qualify to be able to use the vehicles, companies must be purchasing green electricity to power vehicles, something the Manchester Airport is committed to.
The airports group, which also own airports in East Midlands, Humberside and Bournemouth, has leased three of the vehicles for use at each site. Penny Coates, executive board member responsible for the environment at the Manchester Airports Group (MAG), said: ‘It might look like small steps at first but the range and scope of environmental projects we are unveiling across our airports will mean we are able to make significant savings on carbon dioxide.'
‘What the Smart Cars provide us with is a very visible example to our passengers and staff of how our operation needs to take advantage of innovation and new thinking to deal with the carbon issue at our airports.’
Approximately 7.2 tonnes of C02 are saved over the four-year or 40,000 mile lease of the vehicle. The car has an automatic gearbox and all the safety equipment on the regular smart. The car has a top speed of 60 mph and a range of up to 70 miles. Staff at the airport will be able to use the car to access the airport site and it will be the first of many vehicles to emit low or no carbon at the airport.
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