The University of St Andrews, together with Transport Scotland and E-Car Club have launched Scotland’s largest all electric, community car club.

St Andrews now has a fleet of 10 electric vehicles (8x Renault ZOE hatchbacks and 2x Renault Kangoo vans) which residents, businesses and visitors can hire by the hour; making the it Scotland’s most densely populated EV town.

The launch, hosted in the town’s central Church Square, gave residents and visitors the opportunity to meet with representatives from E-Car Club, the University of St Andrews, Renault and Carplus.

The E-Car Club represents a positive step in reducing the towns’ emissions from transport and towards the University of St Andrews’ goal of becoming the UK’s first carbon-neutral university.

For as little as an hour, or for several days, members can collect zero-emission vehicles from three locations; Agnes Blackadder Halls, The Gateway at North Haugh, and David Russell Apartments.

E-Car Club members will pay a £50 one-off joining fee for access to the scheme (£25 until 31 July) — with rental prices starting at £4.50 per hour or £35 per day (24 hours), including power and insurance.

Members will be supplied with a membership card and pin number which they can use to book the vehicles; either online or by phone. Once the vehicle is booked, the membership card can be swiped on the windscreen-mounted reader to unlock the vehicle.

The cars can generally travel around 65-90 miles on a single charge; putting Dundee and Edinburgh within easy reach, with their fantastic infrastructure of rapid charging units making even longer journeys an option.

Scottish Minister for Transport and Islands, Derek Mackay said:

“It is really exciting to see the nation’s first all EV car club launch in St Andrews, funded in part by the £1 million announced last summer for EVs in car clubs through the ‘Developing Car Clubs in Scotland’ programme.

“The Scottish Government is committed to achieving the target of almost total decarbonisation of road transport by 2050 because of the numerous benefits this will bring.”

Chris Morris, Managing Director of E-Car Club said:

“I’m delighted to be able to officially announce the launch of E-Car Club in St Andrews. This is particularly significant to us as our first scheme in Scotland – once home to many of the E-Car team including myself – and our largest single deployment of vehicles to date.”

Source: Next Green Car