New York City and Los Angeles are teaming up to fight for electric vehicles

It’s a strange time indeed to be an automaker, with US federal incentives disappearing and support for newer electric-powered cars waning. “Manufacturers would really like to know what the future is going to be and what the rules are,” says Mike Finnern, senior vice president and zero-emission fleet leader at consulting firm WSP. The guarantees of large future orders from fleet managers such as city governments, but also private companies, “will help them be stable for a while.”

EVs are well-suited for government fleets, Finnern says. Surveys show that average car buyers are still very apprehensive about switching to plug-ins from the gas cars they are accustomed to, and want cars with longer ranges, even if they rarely use the full battery. But governments know exactly how their vehicles are being used, can control charging more precisely, and are able to see that current ranges of 250 to 400 miles per charge suit their needs well. In addition, electric vehicles may help governments save money on refueling and maintenance. Private operators like Amazon aren’t stopping Their forays into electric vehicles“They wouldn’t do it if it wasn’t drawn in pencil,” he says.

“I regret every electric and hybrid car we haven’t bought yet,” Kerman says. “It would have saved us from doubling the fuel costs we have now.” Through a partnership with the US Department of Transportation, his agency I found it Switching to electric batteries improves New York City’s vehicle energy economy by 6 percent.

However, both governments say they have a lot to learn about how and where EVs can best fit, and that the partnership will help them share and create best practices so other cities can eventually follow suit.

One of the most important lessons from the government’s experience so far is that officials need to be proactive and conscientious about engaging city workers. There are technical challenges — maintenance workers need to be retrained to maintain electric vehicles instead of gas-powered vehicles, and everyone must remember to plug them in — and more difficult moral challenges, too.

Workers don’t always appreciate sudden changes. While in New York Data The company points out that the intelligent cruise assist system built into many of its new electric vehicles reduces speed and possibly the severity of collisions in city vehicles, but employees have persistent concerns about workplace surveillance. (In March, the city’s workers union I came to an agreement Explains how data collected from city vehicles can be used in disciplinary actions.)

A workforce passionate about electric vehicles can make a big difference. “We’ve seen some deployments that were really successful, and some that weren’t so successful,” Finnern says. “They have exactly the same issues, but some of them were able to overcome them because their employees were passionate about it and trained.”

Courtesy of the California Department of Internal Services

Hines, who worked with Kerman in New York before moving to Los Angeles, recalls that he was once skeptical of electric cars, but changed his mind when Kerman convinced him to try a Tesla. Above all, it was fun.

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