§ Lord IRONSIDEasked Her Majesty's Government:
(1) What is the total number of battery powered electric road vehicles in Government service at the present time; how they are allocated between the Departments and in each case what proportion is licensed for use on the public highway; and
(2) whether they have carried out any comparative evaluation with internal combustion engined vehicles and so what conclusions have been drawn.
§ Lord WINTERBOTTOMDetails of the battery-electric road vehicles in service in Government establishments are not available, nor is the number licensed to operate on public roads. The latter number will be very small. Most Government-operated electric vehicles will be concerned with the movement of stores.
Electric vehicles are designed for a different duty role from those conventionally powered and direct comparison is therefore not possible. But as an indication the conclusion drawn from a recent 1286WA comparison of buses in not dissimilar roles was that the electric version consumes 1.7 times as much energy overall.