Had a lovely chat with a fireman at a nearby electric car showcase. The gentleman tells me that the average fire truck might only do 50 km per day (usually far less). Given my experience with electric cars, wonderful for short trips, some headaches for cross provincial treks (source), 50 km is truely and mightily inside “the EV rules” turf. So, why have not more city operated cars gone electric?
I had a similar discussion with a parking enforcement officer for the City of Toronto. If he is on duty in downtown Toronto, he drives about 50 km a day, where I live in mid-town, its about 75-100 km/day, and in the suburbs 150 km a day.
I have yet to bump into a Police officer on my walks (a good thing perhaps), but some official statistics suggests that the City of Toronto had about 1515 vehicles, that drove 33 848 278 km in 2003 (source). Assuming 250 working days in a year, that amounts to about 90 km per vehicle per day. Further, as police cars become more connected, there might be further advantages of an EV police cruiser. I have walked by plenty of police cruisers that are idling, mostly as the officer needs to consult a database, or look up a license plate. An EV has none of that. To be fair, there are occasions when officers need to travel great distances on official business, so it might make sense to have a few gas cars in the fleet.
So, for the fire department, parking enforcement and police car, EVs make a lot of sense, the daily mileage for many of not most of these vehicles is perhaps 100 km/day. Would it not be more convenient for all concerned to make most of these EVs? Surely the chore of getting gas for say downtown Toronto’s police motor pool must be painful with the scarcity of gas stations in downtown Toronto (source). I can even see city accountants getting excited over the prospect of not having to bother dealing with expense reports where city staff need to fill up a gas tank.
Electric car adventures 