REQUESTS CONSISTORIES TO GET INVOLVED IN THE COMMITMENT TO THESE CARS

The Cabildo presents two 100 percent electric cars and highlights its "coherence" in its commitment to renewables

A two-seater urban vehicle and a commercial type vehicle have been acquired. The Minister of Energy presented these cars at the Arrecife bus station, where a self-consumption system has been installed?

July 16 2014 (15:40 WEST)
The Cabildo presents two 100 percent electric cars and highlights its coherence in its commitment to renewables
The Cabildo presents two 100 percent electric cars and highlights its coherence in its commitment to renewables

The Cabildo presented this Tuesday two 100 percent electric cars, which it has acquired "in line with its commitment to renewables", as highlighted by the Minister of Energy and Industry, Rocío Arredondo. Accompanied by the president of the Chamber of Commerce, José Torres, and the person in charge of electric car sales at Renault (Juan Toledo S.A.), Cristóbal Ángel, she presented these cars outside the Arrecife bus station.

Specifically, a two-seater urban vehicle such as the Twizy and a commercial type vehicle such as the Kangoo Z.E. van have been acquired. The Minister stressed that this purchase represents "the first steps towards achieving a fleet of vehicles entirely powered by renewable energies, entirely sustainable". The acquisition of these two cars is included in the Cabildo's 1st Island Energy Plan presented last May.

The island's head of Energy stressed the "need to involve the town councils in this campaign to implement electric cars in Lanzarote". "We have asked them to provide two parking spaces for this type of vehicle and that at least one should be near each council building. For our part, we offer to adapt and identify these
spaces", said the Minister. In addition, her department is studying several charging points on the island, for example in Arrieta, the Monumento al Campesino and Playa Blanca.

The president of the Lanzarote Chamber of Commerce congratulated the Cabildo for this initiative, "in which both institutions are working hand in hand, and in which the town councils should also be involved, for example, by adapting their ordinances". "They should follow the path of the San Bartolomé Town Council, which has significantly reduced the road tax for this type of vehicle. This would encourage the purchase of electric cars and the higher the number of them, the lower the prices", defended Torres.

Lanzarote has "the largest fleet" of electric cars in the Canary Islands


The president of the Chamber assured that "right now Lanzarote has the largest fleet of 100 percent electric cars in the Canary Islands", but a "greater involvement of all agents is required to continue advancing in the field of renewable energies".

The head of the firm Juan Toledo S.A., official Renault distributor on the island, explained the characteristics of the Cabildo's new electric vehicles and the concepts in which they represent "significant savings" compared to conventional cars. "These cars recover energy when they move only with inertia, thanks to a system similar to the
Kersh of Formula 1; in addition, they have enough autonomy to run for two days with each charge, based on the average daily family use, 45 kilometers; or even almost the average of a company car, 80 kilometers", he said.

The brand manager also explained that "both are recharged like a mobile phone, in five hours (full charge), although it allows spontaneous charges at any time, without having to wait for the battery to run out". The electricity cost is very low: three euros in the case of the Kangoo and 1.5 euros in the case of the Twizy, according to Cristóbal Ángel.

"This saving is even more significant when compared to conventional cars, as it is 35 to 40 percent lower in terms of maintenance and its fuel consumption is about 28 euros per month, compared to the average of 150 euros that would have to be paid for gasoline or diesel", he pointed out.

Hybrid self-consumption system


On the other hand, the island's Minister of Energy presented the hybrid wind-photovoltaic self-consumption system that has been installed at the Arrecife bus station. An action also included in the Island Plan "Lanzarote renovable", which consists of a vertical axis wind turbine of 1.2 Kw of energy production, and a small photovoltaic plant installed on the roof of the building, in the area of greatest use, which
produces 2.6 Kw.

"The annual production of this hybrid system is estimated at about 6,700 Kw/h. Likewise, its operation means that during all that time 2.75 tons of Carbon Dioxide (CO2) are no longer emitted into the atmosphere, and also that the energy generated by this system
is equivalent to not consuming 3.6 barrels of oil per year", defended the Minister.

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