Green Fleet

The crawl of New York traffic may be picturesque for the tourist, but it means growing fuel costs for the city. Gas prices have risen astronomically, and it is becoming clear that high prices will remain the norm. While New York car buyers continue to come around to hybrids and EV’s, a recent purchase of 50 Chevy Volts by the city government is a prominent endorsement for change.

Motivated to cut costs and reduce emissions, New York City has increased its green car fleet by 70 vehicles, including 50 new Chevy Volts, for a total of 430 vehicles, according to a City press release. In an effort trim fuel costs and cut emissions, City officials say they wish to remain at the forefront of the nation’s “Greening the Fleet” operation.

Although the city utilizes electric scooters for their mobile parking ticket writers, they plan to equip the broader traffic enforcement fleet with electrics and hybrids. They also are looking to assign these vehicles to other departments.

The 50 new Volts, although limited to a 50-mile full electric range, will cut a notable amount of taxpayer money that goes towards vehicle idling.

“This is the latest and largest-ever addition of electric vehicles to the City’s fleet, which is already the largest municipal clean-air vehicle fleet in the nation,” said Mayor Bloomberg. “We will continue to lead by example, but we also must provide New Yorkers with tools to make environmentally friendly choices in their own lives,” the NYC press release reported.

Currently, NYC employs large 6 and 8 cylinder vehicles, the Crown Vic, for their daily traffic and street partrols. While gas expenditures help to increase city deficits, full electric vehicles with limited range will allow funds to remain focused on other programs, officials say.

New York City officials have also launched a website, Drive Electric NYC, to inform the public about electric vehicles.

The full NYC press release can be found here.