Suffolk County Council to launch electric car club

Suffolk County Council will run a trial of electric community vehicles next summer.

Plug In Suffolk Car Clubs will be placing sixteen electric vehicles across eight locations in the county. Local residents will be able to book by the minute, hour or day.

Planned locations include Ipswich, Bury St Edmunds, Newmarket, Sudbury, Needham Market, Stowmarket, Lowestoft and Woodbridge.

Interested members of the public can sign up to a mailing list to receive updates.

It is hoped the car club will bring benefits including improved air quality, reduced congestion and increased mobility for those without access to their own car.

Collaborative Mobility UK (CoMoUK) reported: that, in 2022, each car club vehicle in the UK replaced around 22 private cars.

Suffolk County Council reports that current providers remain reluctant to fully fund electric community vehicles in rural and semi-rural areas like Suffolk as they do not yet have the real-world data to support the usage.

This project will be funded by Suffolk’s public sector organisations. Additional charge point funding is being provided by the Department for Transport’s On Street Residential ChargePoint Scheme (ORCS).

It aims to help deliver on two of the Suffolk Climate Emergency Plan’s goals; a reduced number of cars on the road and an increased proportion of vehicles on the road that are low or zero emission.

Councillor Neil MacDonald, chair of Suffolk Public Sector Leaders, said: “Suffolk residents have been asking about the possibility of bringing Car Clubs to Suffolk following the recent success of the Car Club trial in Oxfordshire, therefore I am looking forward to the launch of our trial.

"I am hoping that many individuals and families will benefit from the scheme and help to bring electric community vehicles permanently to our county.”