The city administration of Düren will rely on emission-free vehicles in the future and has converted its vehicle fleet to electric mobility. A total of 22 “purely” electric vehicles from different manufacturers were put out to tender and purchased throughout Europe.
Düren’s Mayor Frank Peter Ullrich, the First Alderman and Chief Executive of the business development company WIN.DN, Thomas Hissel, and the Head of the General Administrative Office, Petra Rothkranz, presented part of the new vehicle fleet to the public.
Airborne contaminants, environmental damage, pollutants, exhaust fumes – these are all terms that people encounter frequently and in many places in their everyday lives. Düren is also affected by the negative consequences. For this reason, an air pollution protection plan was developed for the city some years ago, which was the basis for another concept: the “Green City Master Plan for the Design of Sustainable and Emission-Free Mobility in the City of Düren” (“Green City Masterplan für die Gestaltung nachhaltiger und emissionsfreier Mobilität in der Stadt Düren”). This master plan, which was adopted by the city council of Düren in 2018, also includes the topics of increasing efficiency and electrification of the municipal vehicle fleet in a sub-concept.
Based on these guidelines, the city administration of Düren has now modernised its vehicle fleet and geared it towards sustainability. A total of 22 electric vehicles (cars, commercial vehicles and vans) comprising the makes Renault Twingo Electric, Opel Corsa-e, Nissan eNV-200 Evalia and Renault Master Z.E. have been purchased. The vehicle fleet is supplemented by pedelecs and an e-scooter, which are especially intended for the large number of business trips in the city area.
For Düren’s mayor Frank Peter Ullrich, this is an important step towards the future: “Seeing our e-fleet gathered here is a beautiful but also rare sight, as the vehicles will be distributed throughout the city as climate ambassadors in the future. We want to set a good example in the mobility transition and consequently are also gearing our vehicle fleet towards sustainability.”
Thomas Hissel, First Alderman of the City of Düren, sees several advantages in the modernisation of the municipal vehicle fleet. He says: “With our new e-fleet we achieve three goals a simultaneously: Firstly, we increase efficiency because the central vehicle fleet is at least 25% cheaper overall than decentralised vehicles in each office. Secondly, we are reducing our emissions because we are relying heavily on e-mobility. And finally, the employees also have something to gain: Without much administrative effort, every colleague can now access four modern vehicle types, pedelecs and e-scooters online and make use of them according to their respective official business.”
The measure was funded within the scope of the Electric Mobility Funding Guideline of the Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure (BMVI Bundesministerium für Verkehr und digitale Infrastruktur) with a funding volume of around 420,000 euros from the Clean Air 2017-2020 immediate action programme (Sofortprogramm Saubere Luft).
The new vehicle fleet will be located at the car park of the Rur-Eifel Vocational College (VHS Rur-Eifel), where the associated charging infrastructure will also be installed. This, in turn, was funded by the eMIND project.