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New Electric Cars Join City’s Fleet

Mayor McGinn was joined on July 13 by City Councilmember Jean Godden, City Light Superintendent Jorge Carrasco, and Greg Smith, founder and CEO of Urban Visions and owner of Stadium Nissan to introduce the first five all-electric Nissan Leafs to the City’s fleet.

Seattle is one of a handful of cities participating in the nation’s largest electric vehicle demonstration, the EV Project. With the help of millions in federal stimulus dollars, the City of Seattle is collaborating with Puget Sound local governments, businesses, non-profits, and electric vehicle enthusiasts, to create a robust regional charging infrastructure for electric vehicles.

With a federal grant from the Puget Sound Clean Cities Coalition, the City of Seattle is installing 22 publicly available EV charging stations in five locations around Seattle – SeaPark Garage, 609 Sixth Ave.; Pacific Place Garage, 600 Pine St.; Seattle Center, Fifth and Harrison; Central Library, 1000 Fourth Ave.; and City Hall, 600 Fourth Ave. The City is also installing EV charging stations to serve its fleet.

To date, the Department of Planning and Development, has issued 256 EV charging station permits and estimates there will eventually be 1,000 charging stations in Seattle City Light’s service area.

The City’s Fleet Services regularly replaces vehicles at the end of their life cycle. Since creating its Green Fleets action plan in 2003, the City’s long-term goal is to have a fleet that is 100 percent clean and green – using clean fuels, having fuel efficient vehicles, and low emission vehicles. Seattle is planning on purchasing  35 new Leafs to replace regular gas vehicles scheduled to be decommissioned between now and 2012. In the last three years, the City has reduced the size of its rolling stock fleet by about 400 vehicles down to approximately 4,225. In addition, although electric vehicles cost more to purchase, the City will save $4,000 dollars in fueling and maintenance costs over the lifetime of a vehicle and reduce up to 23 tons of greenhouse gas over the same time period.