Could electric vehicles offer an alternative to petrol or diesel?
In Ireland at present, there are between five and six hundred electric vehicles. These come mostly in the form of milk and bread floats. However, electric vehicles are nothing new. In the early 1900s, around forty per cent of all US manufactured vehicles were electric. Their popularity waned and by 1924 they had almost completely disappeared.
The concept isn't new. In the early 1900s, 40 per cent of all vehicles manufactured in America were electric.
In Germany, a fleet of twenty electric buses have been in operation for a number of years and have carried over eight million passengers of over three million kilometres.
Leo Purcell, Head of Independent Development at ESB talks about the prospect of converting CIE's fleet of buses to electric.
An RTÉ News report broadcast on 17 October 1979. The reporter is Deirdre Purcell.
