Melbourne Water has added two all-electric Nissan Leaf hatchbacks to its fleet as part of a plan to become 100% carbon neutral by 2030, and will not buy any more internal combustion engine vehicles where a suitable zero emissions option exists.
The commitment to go carbon neutral is believed to be a first for any Australian water provider.
Joining the utility provider’s current Renault Zoe electric vehicles, the fleet will increase again to six vehicles by the end of 2019 when two more electric vehicles will be added to the fleet.
To charge this growing fleet of zero emissions vehicles, Melbourne Water has installed 10 charging ports added across its sites, and plans to add more.
“The support from Melbourne Water staff has been fantastic and everyone from the Melbourne Water Board to our Field Crew members are keen to be involved in the ongoing project,” Melbourne Water fleet specialist Shane Mannix said in a statement.
“We have 10 charging ports installed across Melbourne Water sites with more to be added.”
While the current electric vehicle market in Australia is still mostly limited to hatchbacks, sedans and SUVs, Mannix says that he is looking forward to a wider range of EVs becoming available, such as utes.
“Electric only utility vehicles are not yet available, but they are coming,” he says.
“We are excited to purchase these from 2022/3 and we expect Melbourne Water will be one of the first companies to order dual cab utilities in Australia.”
Bridie Schmidt is associate editor for The Driven, sister site of Renew Economy. She has been writing about electric vehicles since 2018, and has a keen interest in the role that zero-emissions transport has to play in sustainability. She has participated in podcasts such as Download This Show with Marc Fennell and Shirtloads of Science with Karl Kruszelnicki and is co-organiser of the Northern Rivers Electric Vehicle Forum. Bridie also owns a Tesla Model Y and has it available for hire on evee.com.au.