COUNCILLOR John Fry wants to see more electric vehicles on the road in the city, and hopes it will be Bathurst Regional Council leading the charge.
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He recently welcomed the addition of more electric vehicle charging stations in the city, but he wants to see council go further to encourage the use of electric vehicles by upgrading its fleet.
Council got its first plug-in hybrid vehicle in early 2019, but continues to rely on petrol vehicles.
Cr Fry thinks Bathurst council is in a prime position to use electric vehicles, due to the distances staff drive on a day-to-day basis and the surrounding infrastructure.
"If we were looking at Burke Shire [Council], it would be a different story because they've got massive distances and there would be a lot of range anxiety, but I think Bathurst is perfect," Cr Fry said.
"You've got charging stations in Orange or Lithgow, Goulburn and of course Sydney, so you've got charging stations nearby if we're going on trips and our local trips are no more than 50-kilometres each way in our local government area."
His preference would be for council to get a new fleet of vehicles, but he would also support petrol vehicles being replaced by electric one-by-one.
However, to make it possible for council to rely on electric vehicles, it would need to continue to add charging points to the city, starting with the civic centre.
"We need charging stations at the civic centre and the council depots. Also, we need one at the motor museum, and one close to the CBD if we can," Cr Fry said.
At the moment, there are multiple charging stations next to the Bathurst Visitor Information Centre, two in the Armada shopping centre, one out at Abercrombie House and two that were recently installed outside the Bathurst Rail Museum.
Cr Fry hopes that these charging stations will encourage electric vehicle owners to travel to the Bathurst region.
He also expects the number of these vehicles on Australian roads will increase as they become more affordable and reliable.