United States Government Fleet Turns Green

[Atomic]

green government fleet vehicles. good idea?

also, with such a limited number chevrolet volts being produced, i wonder what the percentage of retail vs. fleet sales will be... and does it matter?

GREEN CARS: U.S. to buy 101 Volts, 10 Leafs and 5 Think City EVs

By: Neil Roland

For: Automotive News -- May 24, 2011 - 1:21 pm ET UPDATED: 5/24/11 3:07 pm ET

WASHINGTON DC -- The Obama administration is buying the first 116 plug-in electric vehicles for the federal fleet -- 101 Chevrolet Volts, 10 Nissan Leafs and five Think City EVs, the U.S. General Services Administration said today.

The purchases are part of a pilot project aimed at advancing President Obama?s goal of having 1 million EVs on the road by 2015.

The 116 vehicles will be leased to 20 agencies, including the Energy Department, the Treasury Department and the Navy, in five cities, GSA said in a statement.

The cities are Detroit, Washington, Los Angeles, San Diego and San Francisco, the statement said.

"Diversifying our transportation fleet with hybrids, electric vehicles and other alternative fuel vehicles is a critical element in President Obama?s long-term plan to break our dependence on foreign oil and invest in America?s growing clean energy economy," U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu said.

GSA, which manages the federal fleet, said it will help install charging infrastructure in federal buildings in the five cities.

Last fall, GSA asked automakers to bid on supplying the first 100 EVs for federal purchase. The U.S. government is the nation?s largest vehicle fleet operator.

GSA said it applied four criteria in selecting the vehicles: technical capability, management capability, past performance and price.

Other companies may bid later to become eligible for future purchases, the agency said.

The 116 EVs purchases will save annually about 29,000 gallons of gas, reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 257 metric tons and save taxpayers $116,000 in fuel costs, GSA said.

Starting in 2015, all vehicles purchased by the federal government are to have alternative fuels. These will include hybrid and electric vehicles, and those fueled by compressed natural gas or biofuel.

GSA doubled the federal hybrid fleet over the past year.

[ifcar]

I worry that Volts in fleets wouldn't be treated as carefully as one that someone has paid a lot to own. That is to say, a Volt early adopter is definitely going to plug it in whenever possible, whereas a motor pool model might be on gas more often because it's just that much easier.

[Atomic]

I worry that Volts in fleets wouldn't be treated as carefully as one that someone has paid a lot to own. That is to say, a Volt early adopter is definitely going to plug it in whenever possible, whereas a motor pool model might be on gas more often because it's just that much easier.

great point!

[Rupert]

116 electric cars is, like, 0.01% of the total government fleet. Also, there has been a mandate to buy and use E85 cars for years now.

Aaaaand, the Forest Service has always been green:



(Actually, we no longer paint 'em green-- to much money and it looks like a target for assholes and asshole drug farmers).

[Madman]

The army and Willys were "Green" before green was cool.

Say hello to O.G.  (Original Gangster Green!)

[Mustangfan2003]

Speaking of fleets, here is an odd one from Mississippi Department of Corrections

[Rupert]

BTW, I pulled the 0.01% out of my ass, but it turns out it was almost perfectly right on. It's 0.016%.

[cawimmer430]

So in future Hollywood movies, the secret service agents will be getting out of black Chevy Volts and Toyota Priuses instead of Suburbans and Excursions?

That's just so wrong. They may as well make a comedy instead of an action movie. 

[Laconian]

I remember watching a low-budget TV action movie in France, which had a high speed police chase involving Peugeot 206es. I noticed that they had sped up the film to make them look like they were driving faster. I'm not kidding!

[SVT32V]

green government fleet vehicles. good idea?

also, with such a limited number chevrolet volts being produced, i wonder what the percentage of retail vs. fleet sales will be... and does it matter?


What is so green about electric cars, sure powerplants are more thermodynamically efficient than an internal combustion engine. However, transmitting power and charging batteries certainly isn't efficient.

Unless the power source is nuke, I don't see this as an environmental win.

[giant_mtb]

Yeah, 'cause the Volt is definitely a "plug-in electric vehicle."

[cawimmer430]

I remember watching a low-budget TV action movie in France, which had a high speed police chase involving Peugeot 206es. I noticed that they had sped up the film to make them look like they were driving faster. I'm not kidding!

That explains everything.


I believe the regular 206es do 160 km/h top speed or higher, which is generally fast enough for most people. I tend to cruise at 130 km/h or 150 km/h when driving long distances on the Autobahn.

[AutobahnSHO]

Fail.

That's all.

[Atomic]

BTW, I pulled the 0.01% out of my ass, but it turns out it was almost perfectly right on. It's 0.016%.

i wonder the percentage of "green" vehicles will go into fleets (i.e., what percentage of chevrolet volts, nissan leaf's)?

[ifcar]

i wonder the percentage of "green" vehicles will go into fleets (i.e., what percentage of chevrolet volts, nissan leaf's)?

I'm guessing a decent number will. Fleets can have the money to spend and establish a charging infrastructure, and there are a lot of cities or agencies that will each want a handful of electric cars to point to. (The D.C. Water and Sewer Authority just bought two Volts, for instance.) Those will add up, especially until total volumes soar.

Back in the Car Trivia Game thread, one of my questions had been something like "what is the only import with more than 1,000 annual sales to government fleets" -- the answer was the Prius, but it's no longer the highest-tech.