Following a cost analysis at the suggestion of council member Jim Corey, the City of High Point has determined “electric vehicles are far more expensive and the technology has not advanced to the point that they can meet the needs” of the city’s fleet.”
City officials cited battery replacement costs —ranging between $2,000 and $10,000 — as the main reason for holding off on electric vehicles. What’s interesting is the city already owns four hybrid Priuses, yet no mention is made of purchasing more. Tells me if the Prius were an effective cost-saving measure, the city would purchase more.
Let’s come full circle here –energy policy and people who won’t vote for President Obama again. One of them happens to be former Shell president John Hofmeister, who was on Hannity’s radio show yesterday. I know — evil oil exec –but Hofmeister happens to be a Democrat who voted for Obama in ’08. But he will not be voting for Obama this time around, mainly because he found the president difficult to work with, to say the least.
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10
2012 At 12:20 pm, Billy Jones Said:
It’s really a per unit decision. In trucking the general rule of thumb is less than 50,000 miles per year, gasoline is more cost effective, over 50,000 miles per year diesel is more cost effective but we’ve had many years to compare and crunch the numbers. And, there are exceptions such as vehicles subject to lots of long idling times should always be diesel instead of gas.
In electric vs gas or diesel I think the decision will also come down to mileage. Some units should be replaced with electric ASAP, others should remain gasoline and still others should be diesel. Obviously, trucks with PTOs need to be ICE.
But I doubt such an apples to apples comparison was taken into account as we are talking about governments.
10
2012 At 4:25 pm, Ken Said:
Since the City of High Point owns the electrical distribution system in the city, they can buy power at the wholesale rate. Perhaps the City even has an ownership interest in one or more generating stations. I do not know about that but many similar Cities and co-ops with distribution systems do.
That makes this decision even more remarkable.