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City doubling the number of electric cars it uses

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August 29th, 2014


This article is more than 10 years old.

Rental cost is now comparable to petrol cars and they are cheaper to run

Copenhagen City Council intends to double the number of electric cars it uses over the next 18 months, Morten Kabell, the deputy mayor for technical and climate issues, told Politiken newspaper.

Renting electric cars – which cost about 2,600 kroner a month each – is comparable to leasing petrol-powered cars, but electric cars typically use only 500 kroner of fuel per month, compared to the 1,500 kroner it costs to run a petrol car.

“It’s very uplifting that the electric cars are the optimal choice now, even from a financial perspective,” Kabell told Politiken.

READ MORE: Electric car charging stations erected nationwide

Nationwide co-operation
Kabell said he intends to increase the number of electric cars from 124 to 251 by the end of next year. The city currently rents162 petrol cars.

The city is also entering into an electric car purchasing and leasing agreement with other councils and regions in the country in order to keep the prices low.

So far, 12 have signed up, including the capital region authority Region Hovedstaden and the councils of Horsens, Holbæk and Herlev.

Cécile Toubeau, a policy officer with the European think-tank Transport & Environment, said that the Copenhagen electric car initiative is the largest of its kind, and that other large cities in Europe are waiting and watching to see how it works out in the Danish capital.


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A survey carried out by Megafon for TV2 has found that 71 percent of parents have handed over children to daycare in spite of them being sick.

Moreover, 21 percent of those surveyed admitted to medicating their kids with paracetamol, such as Panodil, before sending them to school.

The FOLA parents’ organisation is shocked by the findings.

“I think it is absolutely crazy. It simply cannot be that a child goes to school sick and plays with lots of other children. Then we are faced with the fact that they will infect the whole institution,” said FOLA chair Signe Nielsen.

Pill pushers
At the Børnehuset daycare institution in Silkeborg a meeting was called where parents were implored not to bring their sick children to school.

At Børnehuset there are fears that parents prefer to pack their kids off with a pill without informing teachers.

“We occasionally have children who that they have had a pill for breakfast,” said headteacher Susanne Bødker. “You might think that it is a Panodil more than a vitamin pill, if it is a child who has just been sick, for example.”

Parents sick and tired
Parents, when confronted, often cite pressure at work as a reason for not being able to stay at home with their children.

Many declare that they simply cannot take another day off, as they are afraid of being fired.

Allan Randrup Thomsen, a professor of virology at KU, has heavily criticised the parents’ actions, describing the current situation as a “vicious circle”.

“It promotes the spread of viruses, and it adds momentum to a cycle where parents are pressured by high levels of sick-leave. If they then choose to send the children to daycare while they are still recovering, they keep the epidemic going in daycares, and this in turn puts a greater burden on the parents.”