What were the politicians thinking when they decided to purchase electric cars for home care services? That is the question posed by the letter writer “Tired of Freezing and Chasing Percentages” in an opinion piece in Sundsvalls Tidning.

The transition to electric vehicles rarely goes smoothly, especially not in critical community services like home care, where reliable mobility is essential.

In a letter to the editor, a person with experience writes that the home care vehicles run around the clock, and sometimes the battery percentage is low because there isn’t enough time to charge between shifts. The cold during winter makes things even worse as the batteries are drained especially quickly.

Once their work with a client is done, the cars are freezing cold. Although you can pre-set the heating before departure, this drains the battery significantly, which in turn means it has to be charged again even sooner.

The operation is supposed to function properly, and it doesn’t. The municipality needs to conduct an evaluation of this, because a lot of our time is spent trying to find a reasonably charged car, only to have to switch to another in order to charge the next one. Our time should go to our clients, not to chasing percentages.

Of course we should consider the environment, but put electric cars in a setting where they actually work, concludes “Tired of Freezing and Chasing Percentages”.

Climate Responsibility

In a response, department head Maria Cederberg and Hans Forsberg (Centre Party), chairman of the Service and Administration Committee, write that they “take the challenges raised very seriously”.

The municipality has a long-term goal of 80-20: 80 percent electric vehicles and 20 percent powered by HVO.

“In this way, we can combine climate responsibility and reliable mobility all year round,” write the pair.

To address the problems, they promise, among other things, to purchase electric vehicles with longer range in the future and to build a vehicle organization where both electric and HVO vehicles are distributed among various units, allowing rotation of vehicles and use of the right car in the right area.

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