Although the Mayor's comments regarding the financial crisis, as well as his concerns pertaining to the health and safety of the New York City residents during this particularly hot weather were certainly relevant and important, I decided to break up my response to the press conference into two parts. This way, the information is more spread out and there's less thrown at you all at once. As mentioned in the previous post, Mayor Michael Bloomberg had a few things that he came to discuss at his press conference yesterday where he was accompanied by Stephen Goldsmith (Deputy Mayor for Operations), David Bragdon (Director of the Mayor's Office of Long-Term Planning & Sustainability), and Edna Wells Handy (Commissioner of the Department of Citywide Administrative Services.)
The last and (I think) most interesting issue that the Mayor brought to the table was a big announcement regarding electric vehicles, and their growing use in New York City. The City of New York already has over 360 electric vehicles being used right now for various government-run programs and services. This number is higher than any other city in the country. Tuesday's announcement marked the largest single addition of electric vehicles ever to the city's fleet. This announcement came as part of the Mayor's "plaNYC agenda to create a cleaner and greener New York City," Bloomberg told the crowd.
The Mayor further explained that NYC.gov will soon have its own separate website dedicated to electric vehicles and their benefits (both immediate and long-term, financial and health-related.) The website will not only feature information pertaining to the city's own fleet of government-owned and operated electric vehicles, but it will also be a resource for residents that are considering purchasing an electric car but would like to get more information before making the decision. The Mayor quoted a study in which results showed that New Yorkers (when in the market for a new car) were "20% more likely to buy an electric car once they've learned more about them."
Now, to the specifics. As of yesterday, Mayor Bloomberg reported that the City of New York was "completing receipt of 50 new extended-range hybrid Chevy Volts, 10 fully-electric Transit Connect Cargo Vans, 2 fully-electric Navistar eStar Utility Trucks (with another 8 more Utility Trucks coming in next week, for a total of 10.)
With the addition of these 70 total electric vehicles being added to the New York City government's fleet, the number of electric vehicles being used by the City will increase by roughly 20%. These vehicles will be utilized by the Department of Sanitation, the NYPD and the Department of Corrections, the FDNY, the Department of Environmental Protection, the Department of Transportation, City-Wide Administrative Services, the Parks Department, and the Taxi & Limousine Commission.
The Chevy Volt in particular is capable of operating completely on battery without having to even turn on the "back-up gas engine" for a reported average range of about 40-50 miles on one battery charge. These figures are rough estimates, and can vary depending on the particular driver, the average speed and acceleration, etc. The Mayor made an effort to point out the plans for the Chevy Volt in particular: "our goal is replacing a significant portion of light-duty vehicles which make up nearly half of the almost 27,000 vehicle city fleet with such Electric powered cars, vans, and trucks."
The Mayor went on to explain that on average, these light-duty vehicles each travel no more than about 35 miles total in one day. Of course on occasion, this number might be a little bit higher, but if that estimate is correct, picture it this way.. that means, if the entire current fleet of light-duty vehicles were eventually replaced one by one with Chevy Volts, it would be feasible to say that about 13,500 (50% of the total 27,000 city vehicle fleet) would be using ZERO gasoline on an almost-daily basis. This concept just really blows my mind, but I'm so pleased to see that we have someone in office like Mayor Bloomberg that cares enough about this city and the environment to start to do something about it now, so that eventually we can get to the point where oil dependance is an old habit that nobody likes to talk about anymore. I know this is not going to be an overnight change by any means, but think about how much cleaner the air could be if we stuck to this course of action. It's a fight forth fighting.
Links:
To watch the full press conference speech delivered by Mayor Bloomberg click here.
(the link is working, not to mention ad-free, it's just not large picture or ideal quality.)
For the Mayor's Office official "News from the Blue Room" press release, Click Here.
(the link is working, not to mention ad-free, it's just not large picture or ideal quality.)
For the Mayor's Office official "News from the Blue Room" press release, Click Here.
** The individual vehicle links listed in the above article are reposted here below for your convenience**
Chevrolet Volt........ Click Here
Chevrolet Volt........ Click Here
Except you are using gas... Just not in the car but at the power plant that generates the electricity for the car to run.
ReplyDeleteWell, Varun, this is true.. but you also have to keep in mind the lifetime of the car. The energy efficiency and zero emissions being put out into the air when the Volt is in electric mode, as that time adds up, so does the amount of greenhouse gases NOT being emitted. But the other 20 vehicles mentioned above are 100% electric, so they will overall even less of an impact on the environment; none, once you factor out the creation of the vehicle in a factory, like you had mentioned. There's also the simple fact that we as NYC residents are no longer breathing in the gases discharged from that vehicle, and eventually if and when ALL vehicles are built in this manner, we'll have a drastically better overall air quality.
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