(thenextdigit.com) - In what can be considered a great push for electric and hybrid vehicles in Los Angeles, LA’s mayor has decided to lease more electric vehicles for city departments. According to a Los Angeles Times report, the district has decided to lease 160 battery EV automobiles, which would make Los Angeles, the city with the largest EV fleet in the whole country.
“When we laid out our sustainable city plan… we promised that 50% of new city fleet vehicles purchased each year would be EV by 2017”, LA’s Mayor Garcetti said at a news conference Friday outside the LAPD headquarters. “Our goal is to one day go from gas-powered to battery electric in our squad cars. And if we do that, the impact could be national in scale,” he added.
LAPD has already deployed 23 electric scooters as well as three electric motorcycles. The new announcement by LA’s mayor may inspire other states’ departments also as electric vehicles use zero gas, making them environmentally friendly as well as saving tax payers’ money for other work.
DWP General Manager Marcie Edwards, “EVs make environmental and economic sense for the city of Los Angeles, and LADWP is pleased to support the mayor’s goal to have EVs become the majority of our fleet.”
During the event, LAPD Chief Charlie Beck said, “I think that today, this announcement, will trickle across the nation as a challenge to other cities, other police departments, other fire departments to look at what you’re doing and to take a step that makes a change for the positive”. Beck marked it as a great day for the city and police department.
All this is part of the plan of Mayor Eric Garcetti to make Los Angeles a sustainable city. According to the plan, 50% of small city cars will become fully electric by 2017. The aim is to have an 80% electric fleet in 10 years.
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