CitiPark responds to Business Green article
"We at CitiPark are already at the forefront of the campaign to encourage and support more EV drivers in London to help combat air pollution"
In response to your recent piece about Leonie Cooper of the London Assembly Environment Committee calling on the Mayor to speed up the roll out of EVs in London, we at CitiPark are already at the forefront of the campaign to encourage and support more EV drivers in London, to help combat air pollution and minimise the carbon footprint in London.
We recently announced that we are rolling out more EV chargers across our entire network, especially within our London car parks (offering almost 1000 car parking spaces across 3 car parks), as well as offering free EV charging to owners of all EVs. We now have 50 EV chargers throughout the portfolio with the vast majority offering free charging (all those in London are free) with no subscription and we plan to roll out more over the coming months.
We wholeheartedly support the need for new incentives for zero emissions cars and in fact introduced a green parking tariff last year, based on the emissions of the vehicles parking at our Clipstone Street branch in London’s Congestion Zone. Central London parking has become a lot more attractive for those driving hybrid, electric or low-emission vehicles, as we are now able to assess vehicle emissions upon entry to the car park and charge accordingly. Vehicle emission checks are performed using advanced software developed by CitiPark. Those vehicles omitting less than or equal to 75g/km of CO2 now qualify for the new ‘green tariff’, which is discounted automatically by as much as 20%, compared to the regular tariff.
Our emission-based green tariff supports the same principles as the ‘T-charge’ levy, both hoping to combat air pollution and other harmful environmental effects by rewarding drivers who opt for lower emission or electric vehicles.
We were recently awarded 'Go Ultra Low' company status in recognition of the fact that we have already opened our vehicle fleet to plug-in cars – 70% are now EV with the aim to have a 100% EV fleet by 2020.
Ben Ziff, our MD, says: “Increasing our commitment to EV vehicles and supporting our customers to do this by providing free EV charging points across the country is at the core of our ‘Going Green’ initiative. We believe that the infrastructures supporting the automotive industry and governmental green agendas should also be adopting the same forward-thinking approach. We are investing a great deal into all of our branches at the moment, not just aesthetically but operationally too. We are also proud to be partnered with Tesla as part of their Destination Charging programme and to contribute to the pursuit of sustainable transportation. Here at CitiPark, we are continuously looking at ways to enhance our green initiatives.”