Housing Hartlepool trials 100% electric car

Housing Hartlepool, part of the Vela Group, is trialling an electric car that will be used for its Homecall Service.

Housing Hartlepool’s Homecall Service has a team of highly-trained operatives who perform routine monitoring and emergency call outs to elderly and vulnerable residents across Hartlepool and the surrounding villages.

The six-month trial will allow Housing Hartlepool’s community monitoring team to assess the benefits of the vehicle to see whether it will prove cost effective and a beneficial addition to its fleet in the future.

The blue Peugeot iOn is 100 per cent electric and has an on-board data collection to record the mileage the car does throughout the trial and the electricity used to charge the car through the newly installed, partially grant funded charging post; this information will enable Housing Hartlepool to calculate the car’s running costs.

Becky Ferry, environmental sustainability coordinator at the Vela Group, said: “We continually strive to increase awareness and understanding of environmental issues and to reduce Housing Hartlepool’s carbon footprint.

“It also is anticipated that the electric vehicle will be much more cost effective than a conventional vehicle. We are looking to replace one of the diesel run vans, which are currently used for routine monitoring and emergency call outs, with an electric vehicle and to potentially provide these vehicles as works pool cars for the company in the future.”

The car is being trialled through the Switch EV project which is funded by the Technology Strategy Board’s Ultra Low Carbon Vehicle Demonstrator Program.

Ferry added: “The automatic car takes between seven and eight hours to fully charge. Once charged it has a range of more than 90 miles and with zero local emission – it is perfect for short, cross-town journeys such as those undertaken by our Homecall team.”