Accelerating the expansion of a clean municipal fleet

Summary

Action was taken to remove barriers and create incentives to promote the use of clean vehicles in Stockholm’s municipal fleet.

Implementing sustainable mobility

Once a city formalises the requirement that its own organisation should purchase clean vehicles, the number of clean vehicles does not automatically increase. The opposite happened in Stockholm. After the entire municipal fleet was outsourced to a private leasing company in 2002, purchase decisions were decentralised and the share of clean cars in the municipal fleet dropped.

Within the TRENDSETTER project, Stockholm broke this negative trend by:

• offering subsidies to lower the cost of purchasing clean vehicles;
• bringing together buyers of clean vehicles in a joint procurement procedure to lower prices;
• arranging seminars and information activities in order to encourage city administrations, especially procurement officers, to choose clean vehicles; and
• setting up a test fleet of clean cars enabling potential buyers to try out different types and models of clean cars free of charge.

Discussions with local and national politicians resulted in free parking or discounted parking rates for clean cars and exemption from congestion charges. Discussions with car dealers also helped to introduce a greater range of clean car models.

Progress

In order to make it easier for city administrations to buy clean vehicles, the municipality designed a framework agreement for common vehicle procurement. A total of 200 clean vehicles were purchased by the administration departments and private companies and their performance was monitored according to driver acceptance, fuel consumption, driving distance, servicing requirements and running costs.

Outcomes

By the end of the TRENDSETTER project in 2005, some 43 percent of the municipal fleet, that is, 465 vehicles, were clean vehicles. This led to:

• a reduction in total energy consumption by 25 percent;
• a reduction in fossil carbon dioxide emissions from 650 to 560 tonnes/year;
• a reduction in emissions of nitrogen oxides, hydrocarbon and carbon monoxide; and
• 15 percent lower fuel costs for biogas vehicles.

Fuelling costs for the electric hybrid vehicles were 3 percent lower. A total of 80 percent of drivers stated that they would recommend others to drive clean vehicles. One disadvantage were the 5 percent higher maintenance costs, since biogas vehicles require more maintenance.

Stockholm continued to promote clean vehicles after the end of the project period, and by 2010 clean vehicles made up over 85 percent of the city’s fleet.