PEI

EfficiencyPEI launches tour to encourage Islanders to consider hybrid vehicles

EfficencyPEI, the province’s energy efficiency agency, is taking a plug-in hybrid car to communities across P.E.I. in hopes of educating Islanders about the benefits of using hybrids vehicles.

Government says it wants to showcase hybrids as an energy-efficient mode of transportation

Jesse Hitchcock (left) and Patricia Gaudet with efficiencyPEI will be touring communities across the province educating Islanders about electric vehicles. (Tom Steepe/CBC)

EfficiencyPEI, the province's energy efficiency agency, is taking a plug-in hybrid car to communities across P.E.I. in the hopes of educating Islanders about the benefits of using hybrids vehicles.

"Energy and our transportation takes up 42 per cent of our emissions and greenhouse gases on Prince Edward Island," said P.E.I.'s Transportation, Infrastructure and Energy Minister Paula Biggar.

According to Biggar, as part of the province's new energy strategy, a committee was created to look at ways to make transportation on P.E.I. more sustainable, as well as helping Islanders save on fuel costs and reducing their greenhouse gas emissions.

It cost the P.E.I. government $40,000 to purchase this hybrid vehicle. (Tom Steepe/CBC)

"We really want to show people that this is an alternative that they can use for transportation," Biggar said.

Biggar added it cost the province $40,000 to purchase the hybrid vehicle for the initiative. 

The decked-out hybrid will tour the Island starting on July 24. At each stop Islanders will have the chance to check out the vehicle, win prizes and ask questions about electric vehicles.

As part of each stop along the tour, efficiencyPEI will reveal how its hybrid vehicle performed in greenhouse gas emissions compared to a regular gasoline vehicle.

With files from Tom Steepe