New York says it saves big dollars on electric car fleet maintenance

A new report published by the city of New York has shown that inclusion of electric vehicles in its fleet has greatly reduced its maintenance costs.

The New York City fleet data includes costs from 1,893 vehicles, 197 of which are plug-in hybrids and 246 pure battery electric. A further 1,336 are non-plug-in hybrids.

Of the battery electric vehicles, 93 are Chevy Bolts, 7 are Ford Focus Electric and 149 are Nissan Leafs.

Comparing the maintenance costs of each different model over 2018, the three all-electric models showed much greater savings than their ICE counterparts, and substantial savings over their PHEV counterparts.

Notably, the maintenance costs of the Ford Focus Electric was barely 20 per cent of its brother, the ICE Ford Focus.

“For all-electric vehicles (BEVs), the oil change, spark plug, and air filter replacement are things of the past.

“You won’t need to get your transmission serviced or worry about your muffler or catalytic converter needing repairs or being stolen, an issue our fleet is dealing with now on gas and hybrid cars,” report author Keith T. Kerman writes.

“While tire and wiper issues remain the same as with gas cars, electric vehicles offer a surprising improvement to brake operations. Regenerative braking reduces wear on brakes and can vastly extend servicing intervals for items such as brake pads.”

The increasing number of low and zero emissions vehicles in the 30,000-strong New York fleet is thanks to a “NYC Clean Fleet” initiative launched by Mayor Bill de Blaiso in 2015.

Aiming for a reduction in GHG emissions of 50 per cent by 2025, the city has since set about purchasing electric and PHEV vehicles, with the aim of 2,000 on the road by 2025.

The city also reported in January 2019 that it employs a variety of off-road electric and solar units including 741 forklifts, electric carts, lighting towers, and sign boards, and has also installed over 475 separate electric car charging locations and 37 solar carports.

It is well on track to meeting its EV targets with 1,756 on-road electric vehicles in total as of January 2019.