What Happened?
The local governments in the San Francisco Bay Area recently launched an electric car incentive to lower municipal fleet costs as well as reduce their carbon footprints. The green initiative is part of the Bay Area Climate Collaborative and Governor Brown’s effort to deploy 1.5 million electric vehicles in California by 2025.
The Goal
The Bay Area Climate Collaborative; city decision makers from San Jose, Los Gatos, Campbell and Mill Valley; and Mitsubishi Motors North America implanted 50 all-electric vehicles throughout the region, while another 250 units are expected to join the fleets in the next 12 months. The electric car project is projected to save nearly $2 million in the first five years, as well as reduce carbon emissions by 6 million pounds statewide.
The cities were able to acquire the all-electric vehicles at discounted prices, further adding value to the purchases which promise lower operations, maintenance and fuel costs in the long-term compared to standard cars. The BACC explained smaller municipalities are able to launch green vehicle initiatives more effectively when the provider offers group prices to support sustainability efforts in the community. The 50 all-electric cars spread out across four cities have the potential to generate $110,000 in fuel cost savings and about 400,000 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions in three years.
Setting Up The Deployment
In an interview with Gov1, Claire Barton, Program Manager at the BACC, outlined the goals for the 50 all-electric vehicles added to the municipal fleets, and the 250 units still to come. The BACC and local governments hope to demonstrate the benefits of electric vehicles in fleet contexts – such as lower costs and emissions – and inspire other towns to take similar action. Many localities have sustainability projects in the works, and adding electric vehicles into the mix could help leaders meet their goals sooner and with more long-term financial benefits.
Barton acknowledged the largest challenge to deploying the all-electric vehicles is typically the upfront costs. More flexible leasing options, however, were provided to the collaborative cities to reduce these expenses.
“If local governments are considering taking advantage of vehicle leasing, they may want to work closely with their purchasing departments to ensure any necessary updates to procurement policies and documents that will allow them to proceed with processing leasing agreements in the most efficient manner,” Barton noted.
Moving Forward
According to Barton, interested municipalities considering electric vehicle deployments should research their options to weigh the costs and benefits. The BACC will continue with its Local Government EV Fleet National Demonstration Project by allocating $5 million in two years to demonstrate electric vehicle value to communities of all sizes.
“This deployment will further demonstrate the cost and emissions benefits of EVs in fleet applications, and will include analytics and best practices gathering which will be communicated through a major visibility campaign to encourage adoptions of EVs in fleets across the region, state and nation,” Barton said.
Changing Lanes
Gov1 has followed similar strategies such as more efficient highway designs and investment in natural gas-fueled vehicles.