Swisscom maintains one of the largest fleets of company vehicles in Switzerland. The company intends to halve its vehicle emissions by 2025 and completely eliminate them by 2030. The first stage in the plan will see 100 company vehicles replaced by electric cars. The Head of Swisscom's sustainability team, Saskia Günther, explains why this step hasn’t been taken before.
Swisscom has been a climate-neutral company since summer 2020. Unfortunately, it is not possible to reduce all the company's emissions ourselves. That is why around 20 percent of the emissions have to be offset through external climate protection projects.
Our vehicle fleet is responsible for about half of this final 20 percent of emissions. Switching to electric cars will allow us to drastically reduce our emissions. Our medium-term goal is to reduce our emissions to such an extent that external off-setting becomes largely unnecessary.
It is an important initial step in the right direction, with more to follow. Our long-term commitment to sustainable mobility began seven years ago with the integration of hybrid vehicles into our fleet management.
By 2025, half of our vehicles will be electric or powered by hydrogen technology. We intend to completely switch to zero-emission mobility by 2030.As we have a fleet of 2,400 vehicles, this is an extremely ambitious target. We are starting now with the first 100 Skoda Enyaqs for our employees.
Swisscom is the first Swiss company to switch to electric vehicles on such a vast scale. Up to now, no vehicle has been capable of meeting our operational requirements. The Skoda Enyaq is the first electric vehicle on the market to fulfil all of our demands and which can replace existing cars on a like-for-like basis.
In reality, we are still waiting for the launch of suitable models. Ultimately, we want our commitment to motivate other companies to switch to a zero-emission fleet. If demand increases, then the market will respond to meet that demand.
The move has been extremely well received. In terms of size, comfort, style and range, the Skoda Enyaq meets all expectations. I have received a lot of very pleasing feedback. I am proud that we have been able to take this step towards zero-emission mobility here at Swisscom, with the support of our employees.
20% of Swisscom’s 2,400 company vehicles are already hybrids. Swisscom is now taking the next step and incorporating the first 100 electric cars into its fleet. Swisscom will also contribute to the cost of installing charging stations at employees’ homes, ensuring that vehicles never run out of power and be charged overnight.
