NYC and LA Are Teaming Up to Fight for EVs

It’s a strange time indeed for an automaker, as U.S. federal incentives disappear and support for new electric cars dwindles. “Manufacturers would really like to know what the future is going to be like and what the rules are going to be,” says Mike Finnern, senior vice president and head of zero-emission fleet at WSP, a consulting firm. Guarantees of large future orders from fleet managers such as municipalities, but also from private companies, “will help them remain stable for a while”.

Electric vehicles are ideal for government fleets, Finnern says. Surveys suggest that regular car buyers are still very nervous about switching to a plug-in car from the gas-powered cars they’re used to, and they want cars with even longer range, even if they rarely use the full battery. But governments know exactly how their vehicles are used, can control charging more precisely, and are able to see that current ranges of 250 to 400 miles per charge perfectly meet their needs. Additionally, electric vehicles could help governments save money on fuel and maintenance. Private operators like Amazon aren’t stopping their forays into electric vehicles, and “they wouldn’t do it if it didn’t happen,” he says.

“I miss all the electric and hybrid vehicles we haven’t purchased yet,” Kerman says. “This would have protected us from the doubling of fuel costs we are currently experiencing.” Partnering with the U.S. Department of Transportation, his agency found that switching to battery electricity improves the energy efficiency of New York City vehicles by 6 percent.

Still, both governments say they have a lot to learn about how and where electric vehicles are best suited and that the partnership will help them share and create best practices so other cities can eventually follow.

One of the key lessons from the government’s experience so far is that officials must be proactive and careful to involve municipal workers. There are technical challenges – maintenance workers have to be retrained to service electric vehicles rather than gasoline vehicles, and everyone has to remember to plug them in – and morale issues as well.

Workers don’t always like sudden changes. And while New York’s data suggests that smart speed assist built into many of its new electric vehicles reduces speeding and possibly the severity of crashes in city vehicles, employees have lingering concerns about workplace surveillance. (In March, the city’s workers’ union reached an agreement outlining how data collected on city vehicles could be used in disciplinary action.)

A workforce enthusiastic about electric vehicles can make all the difference. “We’ve seen some deployments be successful and others less so. They have the exact same problems, but some were able to overcome them because their employees were enthusiastic and trained,” says Finnern.

Courtesy of California Department of Internal Services

Haynes, who worked with Kerman in New York before moving to Los Angeles, recalls that he was once an electric vehicle skeptic but changed his mind once Kerman persuaded him to try a Tesla. It was mostly fun.

“I’ll tell you, no one gets in these electric cars and gets out and says, ‘I hate this car,'” Kerman says. “They all say, ‘I love the car.’