The federal General Services Administration (GSA) intends to buy 116 plug-in electric vehicles, including 100 Chevrolet Volts, in order to boost the fuel efficiency of federal government fleets. According to officials, most part of the cars will be delivered to the U.S. Department of Energy and to other 20 agencies.
The energy required to power the cars will be obtained from 100 EV charging stations. These will be installed at federal buildings in five metro areas, including Washington, Detroit, San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego.
GSA Administrator Martha Johnson claims that thanks to these electric cars, the gasoline used by federal agencies will be diminished by about 29,000 gallons a year. Besides this, she also said that the federal agency fleets will save up to $116,000 and will reduce CO2 emissions by 253 tons a year.
“Diversifying our transportation fleet with hybrids, electric vehicles and other alternative fuel vehicles is a critical element in President Obama’s long-term plan to break our dependence on foreign oil and invest in America’s growing clean energy economy,” said Energy Secretary Steven Chu in a statement.
Electric cars have expensive batteries that must be replaced but otherwise incur very low maintenance costs, particularly in the case of current Lithium based designs.It helps us to save fuel.