Mayor Garcetti announces city of Los Angeles is now home to largest electric vehicle fleet in the U.S.

Electric Car Press Conference

LAPD takes delivery of 100 pure electric vehicles, more than doubling the size of the City’s EV fleet

LOS ANGELES — Black-and-whites can also be green. The Los Angeles Police Department today added 100 electric cars (EVs) to its fleet, making L.A. a national leader in the move to cleaner and quieter vehicles.

The new arrivals bring the City’s total number of EVs to 168, giving Los Angeles the largest fully battery-powered municipal fleet in the United States. In the most aggressive such policy of any city or state in the U.S., Mayor Garcetti’s Sustainable City Plan requires that at least half of all new City vehicles be electric.

“Every sector should be migrating to green technology — and these new EVs show how local government can lead,” said Mayor Garcetti. “Our sustainability plan pushes L.A. to speed adoption of greener practices and technologies, which also save money and resources. If LAPD can do it, so can everyone else.”

The move helps the bottom line. Electric vehicles cost less to maintain and fuel, and the deal includes maintenance as well as training and certification of LAPD mechanics on electric vehicles. By opting to lease instead of purchase the 100 EVs, LAPD also was able to buy and install 104 charging stations.

“Electric vehicle procurement made sense for taxpayers and for the environment,” said LAPD Chief Charlie Beck. “The charging stations we bought will power many more electric vehicles in the future, for much less than the price of gas. Every dollar we save from lower maintenance will go back into law enforcement to keep our city safe. And while our new electric cars will be used only for non-emergency purposes, we will continue to monitor and test new generations of vehicles for their potential to serve as patrol cars.”

The new arrivals give LAPD the largest pure EV fleet of any police force in the country.

LAPD chose BMW i3 cars after a competitive bid, opting for a three-year lease to retain flexibility to change the fleet as EV technology evolves.

With the lease, LAPD was able to replace 100 aging vehicles instead of the original 36.

The department obtained permission from City Council to redirect $1.5 million earmarked for buying EVs to the purchase and installation of 104 charging stations, including 4 DC fast chargers capable of restoring a full charge in less than an hour.

The new EVs will be part LAPD’s motor pool, which is largely used by the civilian work force for meetings or site visits, as well as by sworn officers on routine assignments.

By leading through example on EV procurement, Los Angeles and the City hope to move the EV market towards lower costs and greater investment into viable medium and heavy duty EVs, a critical portion of the City’s fleet for many departments. The lease also will reduce the City’s dependence on a gasoline, a highly volatile commodity.

Los Angeles leads in electric transportation in other ways. The City recently passed its 2017 goal of 1,000 publicly available EV charging stations, giving it the most of any city in the United States.

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Comments

[Ve Smith]

I'm just trying to figure out , is this why the LAPD didn't get body cameras? because you were getting new bmw i3s with the tax payers money though right ? For the detectives and civilians to what investigate a officer involved shooting ?? I'm really angry about this .

[Mark Tanaka]

Why could we not have bought cheaper electric cars?? There are similar electric cars for $27-$30K dollars. Why are we wasting so much of our taxpayers dollars????