The big picture
The Austin Climate Equity Plan, adopted by City Council in 2021, calls for the city to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2040 and make significant strides toward that mark within a decade.
The climate plan also aims for the Austin community as a whole to move away from using gas-powered vehicles, and for 40% of all miles traveled in the city to be made with electric vehicles by 2030. Electrifying the city's vehicle fleet is one piece of that strategy, and city staff say work toward the goal is well underway.
“We’ve been on this trajectory to reduce the emissions in the fleet since 2007, actually a little bit before then. So we started with alternative fuels, and we worked our way to electrification," Fleet Mobility Services Director Jennifer Walls told City Council in March. "During this time, we built a strategy for incorporating new technologies into the fleet and an acquisition program that allows us to take advantage of new technologies as they come on.”
The specifics
Today, 331 of the more than 5,100 vehicles in Austin's on-road fleet are battery-electric.
Fleet officials are eyeing the purchase of nearly 2,200 new EVs over the next decade-plus to meet Austin's 40% mileage goal, for around $163 million.
The plan would cost $20 million to $30 million more than maintaining the city's current fleet type over that time, staff said, while each standard EV could save the city $1,000 annually in gas and maintenance.
The city is now eyeing gradual EV purchases through 2040 to achieve the shift. Staff said a faster, and potentially riskier, approach with hundreds of annual acquisitions by 2030 may also be an option.While the long-term path forward is being considered, new EVs are already being added.
Funding for 65 battery-electric vehicles is included in Austin's fiscal year 2023-24 budget, and the police department is also moving to test the use of electric pursuit cars.
Also of note
Austin launched a pilot for electric police vehicles pilot in January. Two Chevrolet Blazer pursuit EVs have been ordered so far through the APD fleet's trial program.
The cars are expected to arrive toward the end of 2024 and begin patrolling around the downtown area early next year.
Financial Services Department spokesperson Kimberly Moore said staff are also now planning for the charging station infrastructure that'll be needed to keep the vehicles running.
The pilot is expected to run through 2025 and lead to an evaluation of whether to have the APD adopt EVs more widely for its force.
"Ultimately, this would be a collective decision by all key stakeholders, including Fleet Mobility Services, Austin Police Department and city executive leadership. Our objective is to ensure that the vehicles are operationally sound for the service duty required by APD," Moore said.
Assistant Fleet Director Rick Harland said a successful pilot and the phasing in of more police EVs could make a large impact on Austin's climate strategy—while noting that the city will have to contend with logistic, economic and supply chain challenges along the way.
"There are many, many things to take into consideration. The opportunity is great, though," he said. "We replace about 120 police vehicle a year, they have about 1,200 of them in the fleet and they represent 40% of the total miles traveled all by themselves. So this is something that we just have to kind of go down the road, see how this works and act accordingly according to what the results would be from this pilot program."
Quote of note
“When very aggressive goals have been set, there’s oftentimes a ... questioning of whether or not we can do it," council member Ryan Alter said March 27. "I’m really curious to continue the conversation with y’all about looking at where our opportunities where we might hit the accelerator, as it were, and what areas are more appropriate to push off.”
