New charging points for electric vehicles
TWO new electric vehicle charging points have been installed at Argyll College UHI in Oban, just in time for the arrival of two new vehicles adding to its fleet of electric cars.
The charging facility is open to anyone with an electric vehicle and will be free to all users for the next 12 months.
The college currently has three Nissan Leaf electric cars. Last week it learned it had been successful in applying for an additional £ 35,864.94 from the Scottish Government’s Switched on Fleets funding to add another Leaf and a Mitsubishi hybrid.
College estates manager Elaine Clark said: ‘ Money is saved on fuel costs, which we estimate is approximately £1,600 per electric vehicle per year, and we will soon have five of them.
‘Installing the charging points and leasing an additional electric car is just the latest step in our drive to make Argyll College UHI as clean and as green as possible.
‘Argyll College UHI currently generates electricity at three of its learning centres, through solar panels in its Oban HQ, Dunoon and Lochgilphead bases. Together, these provide 10 per cent of the organisation’s annual electricity needs. There is also a wind turbine at the construction, engineering and renewables centre in Lochgilphead.’
ScotRail is also installing a new, free-to-use charging point at Oban train station.