Perth and Kinross Council is seeking to push Perth’s taxi trade towards the electrification of its vehicles.
However the move is proving a challenge due to the rural nature of Perth and Kinross.
The matter was raised during a recent meeting of Perth and Kinross Council.
As part of Perth and Kinross Council’s Climate Change Strategy and Action Plan, the local authority sets out it is looking to “work with taxi operators to accelerate the transition to electric vehicles”. It will seek to “support taxi and private hire fleets to decarbonise and move towards low carbon fleets”.
As the strategy and action plan was discussed at a council meeting on December 4, Strathallan Conservative councillor Keith Allan said: “Taxi drivers and fleet managers don’t want to transition to electric vehicles. How are we going to cope with that and how are we going to achieve it?”
Niall Moran from the council’s Transportation and Development Team acknowledged it was a “challenge”.
He said: “The taxi sector is a challenge but I think we can look at what has been achieved in other areas in pushing the electrification of the taxi fleet, specifically Dundee has got quite a significant proportion of their taxi and private hire cars now fully electric.
“Obviously, we have got more of a challenge in terms of the mileage that’s done in the rural area but as vehicle technology increases in terms of range, barriers to adoption will come down and that hand in hand with the increase in infrastructure for charging that the taxi operators can utilise will reduce those barriers to adoption.
“It’s a case of just continuing to make the case and pushing the trade as much as we can.”