Mayo County Council is going even greener with the acquisition of two new Citroën Berlingo electric vans replacing petrol and diesel vehicles. Supplied by Citroën Ireland through Sean O’Neill, National Fleet Sales Manager, following a tendering process, the new Berlingo Electric LX SWB panel vans with a 49kW/67bhp power output, can cover up to 170 kilometres on a full charge. These vehicles, which have a 636kg payload, take just 30 minutes to charge to 80 percent of their battery capacity at fast charge points, or eight hours at a regular charging system.
The two vehicles are now operational and being used across the County with more electric vehicles likely to follow in the future.
Speaking at the launch, the Chief Executive, Mayo County Council, Peter Hynes, at Aras an Chontae, Castlebar, said he was proud of the Local Authority for taking this step towards a greener future: “When we talk about Mayo and the organisation we are trying to build here – Sustainable, Inclusive, Prosperous and Proud – well, I am proud that we are moving on to the next phase of the transformation of this organisation to being more energy efficient, greener, more environmentally aware and more environmentally friendly.”
“The role that we would like to see this organisation take is one of leadership, we don’t want to be following other people, we want to be green, and we want to be seen to be green as it is an important aspect of our future in a whole lot of areas including tourism and food production. Whatever it is we are doing, Green is going to be a big part of the future of this County.”
There are two charging points in front of Áras an Chontae, available to Mayo County Council and the general public, and further dedicated charging points will be installed for Mayo County Council to charge the new vehicles.