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Data Reveals Universities With the Most Eco Vehicles in their fleet

Electric car charger

@Group1Auto: Universities with the Most Electric Cars in their Fleet

Universities vehicles are often overlooked when it comes to rankings, to find out which institutions have sustainable fleets, Group1 Automotive carried out a Freedom of Information requests to examine which universities have the highest percentage of electric cars in their fleets.

In total, Group 1 requested information from 132 institutions, with 99 responding and 33 refusing to provide an answer or not responding in time. The below tables show only universities with 10 or more vehicles in their fleet.

University

Electric Vehicles

Hybrid vehicles

Diesel vehicles

Petrol Vehicles

% of Electric

University of Cambridge

37

1

12

4

69%

Manchester Metropolitan University

12

1

1

4

67%

The University of the West of Scotland

10

2

6

0

56%

University of Warwick

69

0

59

2

53%

University of Winchester

16

0

11

6

48%

Swansea University

11

0

11

2

46%

University of Sheffield

26

1

27

3

46%

Kingston University

9

1

9

1

45%

 

The University of Cambridge provided us with their “Cambridge Zero” initiative, which shows all of the things they are doing to become more sustainable, fight climate change, and ways they are trying to create a zero-carbon future. They already have 69% of their car fleet fully electric, and the University said they are “committed to cutting greenhouse gas emissions to zero by 2038”. 

The University of Warwick has 53% of their car fleet fully electric and have said that they aim to go fully electric; “The University has a future target to have 100% electric vehicles in the fleet.”

Both the University of Nottingham (UoN) and Nottingham Trent University (NTU) earned the top five positions of the latest UI GreenMetric World University Ranking. However, UoN and NTU have less than 20% of their fleet electric. With 54 vehicles, Nottingham Trent has one of the highest percentages of Diesel-powered vehicles across all 99 universities that provides a response to the FOI. 

Universities with Least Electric Cars in their Fleet 

University

Electric Vehicles

Hybrid vehicles

Diesel vehicles

Petrol Vehicles

% of Electric

University of Aberdeen

1

0

20

3

4%

University of Liverpool

3

0

73

0

4%

Harper Adams University

1

0

24

5

3%

University of Derby

0

0

28

10

0%

Brunel University London

0

0

20

7

0%

University of Stirling

0

1

20

2

0%

Plymouth University

0

0

17

2

0%

University of Bradford

0

0

12

0

0%

University of Huddersfield

0

1

11

0

0%

Liverpool Hope University

0

0

11

0

0%

Roehampton University

0

0

9

2

0%

Our results showed that 41 universities have 10% or less of their vehicles electric. 

The Russell group institution University of Liverpool has the second most diesel vehicles out of all universities, with a surprising number of 73. They did not respond to the ROI with any comment on whether they plan to improve this, however, on their website, they do claim to have “Reduced their carbon footprint by 13% due to the Combined Heat and Power Plant” – a new infrastructure the university invested £19 million into.

With zero electric cars currently in their fleet,  the University of Derby gave a statement claiming that a “sustainable travel plan” being formulated by the transport department, however, “there is no anticipated date for completion as yet”.

 


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