The council is to spend £1.3 million on a new fleet of electric cars.

The deal is being agreed to replace 180 vehicles that have reached the end of their contract.

The vehicles are part of the council’s 1600-strong fleet of vehicles, of which 325 are electric.

Most of the cars are used for the delivery of health and care services to vulnerable people.

Part of the Electric Vehicle Fleet, 180 Nissan Leafs purchased previously needs to be replaced next year.

The council’s strategy includes a commitment to have a zero-emission fleet by 2030.

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New vehicles added to the fleet need to have a larger battery capacity than the previous cars to reduce re-charging and increase the range.

George Gillespie, Executive Director of Neighbourhoods, said: “This increase in range will provide greater reassurance to vehicle users, and remove the need to constantly re-charge vehicles, increasing availability capacity of the Council’s Fleet EV charging network.”

The new cars will have a 59kW battery providing a range of approximately 210 miles.

They will be bought at a discounted rate due to Nissan Leaf cars being discontinued.

Mr Gillespie added: “Despite this vehicle being discontinued from manufacture, support and parts supply will continue for at least 20 years as part of Nissan’s aftermarket sales requirement.”

Councillors are being asked to approve the deal which will cost £1,348,152.

The Glasgow Times revealed in 2021 how a previous fleet of 180 vehicles lay unused for more than a year.

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The council paid almost £2m for 181 electric cars and small vans bought or hired at various points from April 2020 to April 2021.

However, they failed to be used for up to 15 months and were instead abandoned in local authority-owned Charing Cross and Duke Street car parks.

The contract for the electric fleet – which included small Nissan vans and cars – was in place prior to the nationwide Coronavirus shutdown in March 2020 but the vehicles were not delivered until restrictions were already in place to tackle the spread of the virus and lay in the car parks for months afterwards.