Mowi on the road to lower emissions

Salmon farmer Mowi Scotland has appointed Edinburgh-based fleet management company Gofor to manage the transition of its fleet of more than 130 cars, vans, and pick-ups to electric and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles.

Mowi aims for all its company cars to be zero-emission or hybrid by 2025 and will include all vans and pick-ups in this transition as suitable vehicles become available.

The company has already begun its change to electric vehicles (EVs) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) and is now undertaking the installation of workplace charging at its sites. Originally deploying 7kw charge points, Mowi is now looking to introduce more rapid charging.

A smooth changeover

Gofor managing director Graham Lesslie said the company was taking a highly proactive approach to ensure that the switch to electric and hybrid is as smooth as possible for Mowi.

“The Gofor team set up test drives to get employees comfortable with EVs and we also facilitated workplace charge point installation to make running the vehicles really easy,” explained Lesslie.

“Our customer success team will support Mowi in the future with both vehicles and chargers as they transition to a reduced carbon fleet.”

Gofor has already supplied Mowi with two fully electric Citroen e-Spacetourer people carriers, alongside a new MG4 Electric car. The people carriers were selected as ideal vehicles to transport staff between Inverness and the Inchmore hatchery, and between Fort William and the Lochailort hatchery.

Mowi area manager Allan Macdonald said: “In addition to the clear environmental benefits from this move, thanks to the electric people carriers, it is now easier to transport staff to and from their place of work which will also help with recruitment in the future.”

The salmon farmer’s purchasing managing, Ian Barrett, said: “The remote geography of our business makes it more challenging to reduce our vehicle emissions, but this doesn’t limit our ambition.

“We’re making major differences wherever we can. The electric people carriers have been a great start, and with more fully-electric company cars planned we’re clearly making great strides.

More charging points

“We now have e-vehicle charging points at our head office in Fort William as well as our salmon hatcheries at Lochailort and Invermoriston (Inchmore) – I can see from my office window the benefit our people are already getting from this! Our plan is to expand these charging points at our many business locations across the Highlands and Islands.”

Gofor said ongoing investment in UK electric vehicle charging infrastructure means the number of public chargers continues to increase. The company is actively encouraging its electric vehicle customers to invest in workplace charging infrastructure and facilitates installation as part of its full fleet management package.

Zapmap, a UK EV mapping provider, states that at the end of June 2023, there were 44,408 EV charging points in the UK across 25,521 charging locations – a 36% increase in charging devices since June 2022. Scotland has 4,023 charging points.