The executive order from Mayor Bill de Blasio was announced on 6 February 2020 at his State of the City Address and it also requires the city to procure the safest possible vehicles for its fleet.
NYC currently operates the largest municipal fleet in the United States with more than 30,000 fleet units across 50 different agencies covering a wide variety of types and functions. Mayor de Blasio drives a plug-in minivan.
Executive order 53 cites a ‘clear global climate emergency caused primarily by the burning of fossil fuels’ and calls for a carbon-neutral, 100% electric fleet by 2040. The city already operates 2,700 electric units, including more than 2,100 on-road units, with hundreds more on order, in what is already one of the most sustainable fleets in the US. The city’s police fleet is the process of transitioning to hybrid cars with an initial order for 700 hybrid police units, and in total more than 19,000 fleet units in New York City run on some type of alternative fuel, including electric, hybrid, solar, biofuels or natural gas.
To achieve the transition to 100% electric operation, the Department of Citywide Administrative Services will produce annual Clean Fleet and Safe Fleet Transition Plans. DCAS has already issued a public NYC Clean Fleet Plan, two Vision Zero Safe Transition Plans, as well as a report on truck sideguards. DCAS has partnered on these plans with the NYC Mayor’s Office of Sustainability and the Volpe Center at US Department of Transportation. These plans will address the sustainability and safety not only of the city fleet but also private, non-profit, and other public fleets.
The Executive Order calls on DCAS to create a fleet network of all fleets operating within the city’s five boroughs to promote and share the transition plans and other fleet best practices in recognition that such a transformation of the fleet industry will require that DCAS partner far and wide.
It will also require infrastructure and DCAS has implemented one the largest electric charging networks in the US to support the operation of plug-in units. Already in NYC there are 659 separate chargers with 953 charging ports. The EV network includes the largest network of free-standing solar carports in the world, with 88 units so far. DCAS has installed four fast chargers and plans to install 96 more over the next 18 months. DCAS also intends to operate at least 1,000 separate charging stations by the end of 2021.
NYC’s existing electric fleet includes sedans, SUVs, and minivans. The city has a contract out for an electric RCV and is awaiting delivery of its first electric school bus. Fleet has committed to reducing its use of fossil fuels by 50% by 2025 and already operates all-electric transport carts, solar/electric light towers, and electric forklifts.
February’s executive order complements EO 41 issued in March 2019, which outlined fleet sustainability, right-sizing, and efficiency through the NYC Clean Fleet Plan. This order also established telematics tracking for fleet units and calls on the City to reduce non-emergency fleet size and commuting.
‘Under Mayor de Blasio, NYC will lead the way in implementing electric and safe fleet units,’ says NYC Chief Fleet Officer Keith Kerman. ‘The City’s public servants use every type of fleet unit including trucks, cars, vans, and off-road, and in some of the toughest and most pressured functions possible. If we can transition to zero emissions and zero crashes, then the entire fleet industry can too!’
