Nearly 200 Glasgow City Council electric cars found unused in car parks

The fleet of 322 vehicles could be seen with layers of dust settled on the windscreens, and Glasgow City Council confirmed 130 are now in service - meaning 202 are not.

White Nissan e-NV200 vans were branded with the motto ‘People Make Glasgow’, and also said ‘Electric vehicle zero emission’ were parked in rows in car parks.

Some vans were marked ‘Highway maintenance’.

Black Nissan Leaf cars were emblazoned with the green-and-yellow local authority logo.

A spokesman for Glasgow City Council said: “If it were not for the impact of lockdown then we are confident that most, if not all, of these electric vehicles would already be in use by this time.

“Prior to the covid pandemic we reached agreement to take possession of new electric vehicles on very competitive terms with grant support.

“This agreement supported our plan for a fleet of zero emissions vehicles but we subsequently took delivery of the vehicles during lockdown when restrictions prevented in-vehicle training.

“Staff were unable to undertake the induction programme needed for them to be authorised to drive the vehicles.

“The training programme has now been back up and running and that has helped to bring more electric cars into service across the different service areas of the council.

“Despite the on-going impact of the pandemic, further detailed plans are also in place which will see more staff able to access an electric vehicle for their work with these cars being distributed to an increasing range of council premises.

“Using mini-buses to transport cleansing crews in support of refuse vehicles during the pandemic was the safest and most sensible option for ensuring bin collections ran as efficiently as possible during a very challenging time.”