Cork City Council has considerable ambition when it comes to the drive towards a low carbon economy. In demonstration of this the Council recently entered into a rental agreement for the hire of 76 electric cars and small vans from a local fleet hire company to replace the ageing diesel fleet. To optimize the usage of the vehicles, electric vehicle charging points have been placed in the Council’s depots, car parks and in the homes of the vehicle users.
The Council also re-branded the new fleet. Fleet Manager Cormac O’Sullivan said that the branding is inspired by the concept used by Milton Keynes Council. Cormac saw this when on a study visit to Milton Keynes in September 2019 as part of the Interreg Europe Interregional Learning Programme INTENSIFY.
The branding is used by the Council to encourage people in the city to go electric and as a result reduce their greenhouse gas emissions.
The use of the ‘We-Care’ brand will be extended in time to all environmental activities of Cork City Council.
The ‘We-Care’ branding comes from the term ‘e-car’, combined with the existing Cork City Council brand ‘We Are Cork’.
The vehicles are on the roads in the city and act as a platform to promote more sustainable modes of transport both within the city and wider regions, expanding to the local population of 211,000 people. Cork City Council now has the largest electric vehicle fleet of any local authority in Ireland and has attracted significant interest both locally and nationally, including national news channels.
