Archived News Release: June 28, 2019 - At the second-annual Climate Mayors Summit in Honolulu, Hawaii, June 28, Climate Mayors Electric Vehicle Purchasing Collaborative (“the collaborative") — with which the City of Ann Arbor is partnering to electrify its city fleet — announced that 127 cities and 15 counties from across 38 states, including the District of Columbia, have joined the collaborative and committed to purchasing more than 2,100 electric vehicles (EV) by the end of 2020. Since 2004, the City of Ann Arbor has had a Green Fleets Policy, aimed at enhancing fuel efficiency and supporting alternative fueled vehicles within the city fleet. In 2018, the city updated its Green Fleets Policy, directing all city departments to work toward a 25% reduction in fleet-related emissions by 2025. Joining the collaborative provides the city the support and peer-networking platforms needed to meet and exceed this goal, all while helping improve citywide air quality and public health.
City fleet
Ann Arbor currently operates three electric vehicles, has three natural gas garbage trucks, and a natural gas street sweeper. The city also has four hydraulic-hybrid recycling trucks and two hybrid bucket trucks.
By transitioning to EVs, cities like Ann Arbor are leading by example: helping to cut greenhouse gas emissions that are warming the planet, saving taxpayer money, improving public health and reducing the nation's dependency on oil. With 127 cities committing to the collaborative by the end of 2020, the EV commitments have the potential to:
As part of Climate Mayors' commitment to grow participation and offerings in the collaborative, its procurement partner, Sourcewell, will be releasing a new national solicitation for electric school buses by the end of the year, enabling all electric school bus manufacturers to participate and become readily available for any public school system to access at competitive prices. The collaborative will continue to expand in the future, including to transit buses and other vehicle types. With more than 470,000 school buses and 70,000 transit buses operating across the country, transitioning to electric school buses creates a big opportunity to make it easier for school children and across the U.S. to travel on a zero-emission bus.
“The clean transportation revolution is not a distant vision for the far-off future — it's a reality hitting the streets of Los Angeles and cities around the world," said Climate Mayors' Founder and Co-Chair Eric Garcetti. “By expanding this innovative platform with zero-emission school buses and thousands of new commitments for electric vehicles, Climate Mayors are sending a powerful message to the global car market: if you build electric vehicles, we will buy them."
“Emissions from vehicles are a major source of pollutants in local communities around the nation. In fact, in Ann Arbor, we anticipate emissions from the transportation sector soon growing to be our largest source of emissions," said Ann Arbor Mayor Christopher Taylor. “Given this, it is imperative that local communities do all they can to support and expand active transportation, alternative transportation, and the clean transportation revolution."
“The electrification of Honolulu's city and bus fleets will go a long way in making our island more sustainable and resilient in the face of the current climate crisis," said Honolulu Mayor Kirk Caldwell. “However, it will also improve the natural environment for our residents and visitors by eliminating smoky exhaust fumes and noise pollution from our communities. By coming together under one umbrella with this EV Collaborative, mayors across the country are increasing the purchasing power of taxpayers while also showing love for Mother Nature."
Cities across the country are demonstrating critical leadership by committing to transition their fleets to electrification — reducing our dependence on oil, while also improving our nation's health and our economic and national security," said Ben Prochazka, Vice President of the Electrification Coalition. “We hope other mayors around the country will see this as a call to action and plug their fleets into the Climate Mayors EV Purchasing Collaborative."
In agreeing to purchase electric vehicles through the collaborative, public agencies gain access to competitively solicited EVs and charging infrastructure, as well as innovative leasing options that allow cities to reduce EV costs by accessing state and federal tax credits. The collaborative also provides support with analysis and best practices for fleet electrification to cities as they consider switching to electric.
Launched in September 2018, the collaborative is a partnership between Climate Mayors, the Electrification Coalition and Sourcewell. The program works with cities and other public agencies to accelerate the electrification of public fleets. The collaborative provides technical expertise to purchasers and a program that reduces the costs and barriers to electrifying fleets.
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About Climate Mayors
Climate Mayors, founded in 2014, is a diverse network of U.S. city leaders who have committed to fighting climate change. In response to the Trump administration's withdrawal from the Paris Agreement, the network's ranks swelled to more than 400 U.S. mayors from across the country who have committed to taking ambitious action to meet each of their cities' current climate goals, while working together toward achieving national Paris targets. Climate Mayors is founded and chaired by Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, and co-chaired by Mayors Madeline Rogero (Knoxville), Sylvester Turner (Houston) and Marty Walsh (Boston).
About the Electrification Coalition
The Electrification Coalition (EC) is a nonpartisan, not-for-profit group of business leaders committed to promoting policies and actions that facilitate the acceleration of electric vehicle adoption on a mass scale in order to combat the economic, environmental and national security dangers caused by our nation's dependence on oil. The EC works through several approaches to accelerate the adoption of electric vehicles including consumer education, fleet electrification, public-private partnerships, comprehensive EV accelerator communities, policy advocacy and innovative program development. Since 2008, the EC has been developing leading best practices to help cities, states and the private sector influence the adoption of EVs by consumers and fleets.
About Sourcewell
Sourcewell is a self-supporting government organization, partnering with education and government agencies throughout North America. They offer a cooperative purchasing program with over 300 awarded vendors on contract. On behalf of their 50,000 members, Sourcewell conducts competitive solicitations, awarding to the most responsive and responsible vendors. The result of this cooperative effort is a high-quality selection of nationally leveraged, competitively solicited contract solutions to help create efficiencies and meet the ever-challenging needs of current and future member agencies.
