Copenhagen City Council intends to double the number of electric cars it uses over the next 18 months, Morten Kabell, the deputy mayor for technical and climate issues, told Politiken newspaper.
Renting electric cars – which cost about 2,600 kroner a month each – is comparable to leasing petrol-powered cars, but electric cars typically use only 500 kroner of fuel per month, compared to the 1,500 kroner it costs to run a petrol car.
“It’s very uplifting that the electric cars are the optimal choice now, even from a financial perspective,” Kabell told Politiken.
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Nationwide co-operation
Kabell said he intends to increase the number of electric cars from 124 to 251 by the end of next year. The city currently rents162 petrol cars.
The city is also entering into an electric car purchasing and leasing agreement with other councils and regions in the country in order to keep the prices low.
So far, 12 have signed up, including the capital region authority Region Hovedstaden and the councils of Horsens, Holbæk and Herlev.
Cécile Toubeau, a policy officer with the European think-tank Transport & Environment, said that the Copenhagen electric car initiative is the largest of its kind, and that other large cities in Europe are waiting and watching to see how it works out in the Danish capital.
