SRC buys electric cars to travel between six campuses and reduce carbon footprint

The college, which has campuses in Portadown, Lurgan, Banbridge, Kilkeel, Armagh and Newry, bought the cars from Shelbourne Motores Nissan.

All three cars are electric and environmentally-friendly Nissan LEAFs and emblazoned with the Southern Regional College logos.

The cars, all N-Connecta trim level models, are each equipped with a high-tech 40kWh battery capable of travelling up to 168 miles on a single charge. As such, they will be ideally suited to their daily duties shuttling between the different sites.

Southern Regional College delivers courses from recreational hobby programmes through to degree and master’s level qualifications.

It caters for approximately 32,000 students each year and has more than 900 members of staff.

The Nissan LEAFs were chosen as the college is looking to minimise its carbon footprint.

It has a stated aim of embedding sustainability into its curriculum and of creating an ethos of environmental responsibility across the entire college community.

A spokesperson said: “They couldn’t have made a better choice than opt for a trio of Nissan LEAFs! The first, and still the best, mass-market electric car, more than half a million examples have been sold worldwide since its launch a decade ago.

“LEAF owners have collectively driven around 15 billion clean-air kilometres since 2010 – and have helped prevent more than 2.4 billion kilograms of CO2 being pumped into the atmosphere.”

Brian Doran, Principal and Chief Executive of Southern Regional College, said: ‘‘We were delighted to take delivery of three Nissan LEAFs and are really looking forward to putting them through their paces.

‘‘At Southern Regional College we are serious about promoting a positive attitude and ethos towards sustainability across all college activities including our transport procedures.

“I would like to thank the team at Shelbourne Motors Nissan for helping us take another step towards achievement of our sustainability aspirations.’’

Richard Crawford, General Manager at Shelbourne Motors Nissan, said: ‘‘We were thrilled to be able to provide Southern Regional College with this trio of all-electric LEAFs. They will be extremely well-suited to college life and we’re sure the staff will enjoy their electric motoring experiences.”

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