It’s certainly a strange time to be an automaker, as US federal incentives disappear and support dwindles for new electric vehicles. “Manufacturers really want to know what the future holds and what the rules are,” says Mike Finnern, senior vice president and leader of zero-emission fleets at WSP, a consulting firm. Guarantees of large future orders from ship managers such as city governments, but also private businesses, “will help them to be stable over time.”
EVs are ideal for government fleets, Finnern says. Surveys suggest that conventional car buyers are still nervous about switching to plug-in from the gas cars they’re used to, and want cars with longer ranges, even if they rarely use up the battery. But governments know exactly how their vehicles are used, can control charging more precisely, and can see that today’s range of 250 to 400 miles per charge fits their needs. Also, EVs can help governments save money on fuel and maintenance. Private operators like Amazon are not stopping their invasion in EVsand “they wouldn’t do it if it didn’t give a pencil,” he says.
“I regret every electric and hybrid car we haven’t bought yet,” says Kerman. “It would protect us from the doubling of fuel costs that we are currently enduring.” In cooperation with the United States Department of Transportation, its agency got it that switching to battery electricity improves the energy economy of a New York City car by 6 percent.
Still, both governments say they have a lot to learn about how and where EVs are most effective and that the partnership will help them share and develop best practices for other cities to eventually follow.
One big takeaway from the state’s experience so far is that officials should be cautious and careful about getting city employees on board. There are technical challenges—repair crews need to be retrained to maintain EVs instead of gas-powered cars, and everyone needs to remember to plug them in—and more complex morals, too.
Employees don’t always appreciate sudden changes. And New York time data suggests that the intelligent speed assist built into many of its new EVs reduces the speed and severity of accidents in city cars, workers are concerned about workplace monitoring. (In March, the city labor union reach an agreement explain how data collected from city vehicles can be used in disciplinary actions.)
Employees who are passionate about EVs can make all the difference. “We’ve seen some deployments be successful and others, not so much. They have the same problems, but some were able to overcome them because their people were excited about it and trained,” Finnern says.
Courtesy of the California Department of Internal Services
Haynes, who worked with Kerman in New York before moving to Los Angeles, recalls that he was once skeptical of EVs but changed his mind once Kerman convinced him to try Tesla. It was, above all, fun.
“I’ll tell you, nobody gets into these electric cars, gets out and says, ‘I hate this car,'” Kerman says. “They all say, ‘I love the car.’
