Shire of Capel reveals rejection of grant to support council uptake of electric vehicles amid concerns

One of the three South West councils revealed earlier this year to be receiving a grant to support adding electric vehicles to its fleet has revealed it rejected the offer. The Shire of Capel was announced in March as being part of a joint Australian Renewable Energy Agency-State Government program which would see the WA Local Government Association buy EV chargers for its members in return for them purchasing electric cars for their fleet. It joined the Harvey and Augusta-Margaret River shires in receiving support, but chief executive Gordon MacMile revealed it rejected the grant at last month’s meeting. He told councillors the funds the council would have received for the charging stations was less than the amount the shire would have been required to spend purchasing three EVs. “We negotiated with the WA Local Government Association for some time and we identified a number of risks in the grant offer,” he said. Mr MacMile said the council had a number of challenges to implement the vehicles into its fleet, including how they would have been allocated and how the shire would accommodate staff charging them at home. He also noted “significant concerns” raised by the Local Government Insurance Scheme about potential trade-in values of the vehicles and their cost to insure. “In the balance of all those things and on the basis that we could actually budget for less money that we were going to be required to install the charging infrastructure, we decided not to proceed,” he said. Mr MacMile did not fully reject EVs being included in the shire’s fleet in the future, noting plans for chargers in the draft corporate business plan and a proposed fleet review to determine how to move forward. He revealed the outcome of the grant following a question by deputy shire president Sebastian Schiano, who supported the decision. “While I’m very supportive of the introduction of electric vehicles, I think the reasons given by the administration as to why that’s not as achievable as what we first set out to do (are) very reasonable,” he said. Cr Christine Terrantroy said it was important the council did not jump at every grant it receives, noting the need to look at the strings attached. It comes as councillors voted to unanimously approve changes to its fleet and plant procurement policy, which will now see fleet cars replaced every five years instead of three.