Mayor of Peterborough gets electric Jaguar

The Jaguar I-Pace Estate 294kW EV400 replaces the 3.0 litre V6 Jaguar XJ which was previously on loan to the city council and used for all official mayoral engagements.

The electric vehicle will be used by the Mayor of Peterborough Cllr Stephen Lane, as well as other civic office holders to attend civic and ceremonial events across Peterborough.

These cover a wide range of events, from Royal visits and leading the city’s annual Remembrance Sunday service to small community group meetings and charity events.

The car, which is fully electric and has a range of 290 miles, has also been fitted with the distinctive number plate EG1 which has previously been valued at £50,000.

The cost of the new vehicle is broadly the same, with the additional lease costs covered by the saving in fuel costs. The annual budget for the mayor’s car is £9,000. In 2019, the last typical year for events, the fuel cost was £2,680.

Cllr Wayne Fitzgerald, leader of Peterborough City Council, said: “During the past three years the mayoral car did 32,289 miles which resulted in approximately 13.7 tonnes of CO2 emissions. Had these journeys been undertaken using an electric vehicle there would have been a significant reduction in the amount of emissions created.

“Not only will we save a huge amount of carbon, this newer vehicle will not cost us any more owing to the amount we will be saving in fuel costs.

“This is just one of the many actions the council will be taking as we move towards our goal of becoming carbon zero by the end of this decade.”

The council signed up to a Carbon Management Action Plan last year following the declaring of a climate emergency in July 2019.

It included a top 20 pledges or actions which included replacing the mayor’s car with an ultra-low emissions vehicle, continuing to plant new trees and considering leasing additional office space to reduce energy demands.

Cllr Nigel Simons, cabinet member for waste, street scene and the environment, said: “We owe it to future generations, our own children and grandchildren, to take climate change seriously and reduce our impact on the environment. That is why members unanimously declared a climate emergency and committed to making the council’s activities net zero by 2030.

“There is lots that we are doing already - many of our schools have solar panels and rain water harvesters, we’re dimming street lights to reduce energy use and building more homes in the city so that people are less reliant on cars and more likely to use public transport.

“However, we have to do more and that is why we are now leasing an electric vehicle for the city’s mayor and installing more electric charging points across the city to make it as easy as possible for residents to move towards an electric vehicle.”