Tiree Community Powerdown project has been looking at the feasibility of electric vehicles. The community identified green transport as an objective in the 2004 Community Development Plan. Electric vehicles have improved in design and battery capacity to give robust vehicles with ranges of up to 70 miles and top speeds of 60 miles per hour. The cars have all the features you would expect in a modern vehicle. And are completely silent! They are cheap to run at approximately 1.5 pence per mile for fuel costs compared to 17.5 pence per mile for conventional cars. They are more expensive to buy compared with conventional cars.
Tiree is well suited to electric vehicles because:
- There is a premium on imported fossil fuels
- Most journeys on Tiree are short and over flat terrain
- We have an exceptional wind resource which can provide an excess of electricity at night when it is cheapest to use
- The most efficient use of this electricity is at the place where it is generated
