City saves $2.5M by electrifying fleet with plans to nearly double EV count by 2030

At the Climate, Water, Environment and Parks Committee meeting Monday, Austin officials reported $2.5 million in savings from electrifying the city’s fleet and outlined plans to nearly double the electric vehicle fleet size by 2030 as part of a broader push to cut emissions and grow citywide charging infrastructure.

“Every electric vehicle that we deploy reduces greenhouse gas emissions, improves local air quality and supports healthier communities, especially in frontline neighborhoods that are most impacted by pollution,” said Rick Harland, assistant director of Fleet Mobility Services. 

The city currently operates 373 battery electric vehicles (BEVs) in its fleet, which collectively logged 1.8 million miles over the past year. Zach Baumer, director of the Office of Climate Action and Resilience, said the city aims to double its BEV fleet to over 700 by 2030. To support this expansion, the city will install 282 dedicated fleet charging ports at city facilities by the end of the year and plans to install a total of 497 by 2030.

“We’re prioritizing high usage units, departmental readiness and we’re really trying to find that right fit where we maximize emissions reductions and maximize cost savings,” Baumer said. 

Harland said the city’s transition to BEVs has already resulted in $2.5 million in lifetime savings in real fuel and real maintenance across city departments. 

Council Member Marc Duchen raised questions about whether emissions, air quality and carbon footprint are being measured as part of the savings value, and whether the financial impacts, such as switching costs and vehicle retirements, are being fully accounted for as the pace of fleet turnover evolves.

Harland said that the city does an analysis that includes real-world miles, interest, real salvage value, real cost of replacement and environmental impact, but those values are not reflected in the $2.5 million figure. 

“These savings that we have, the $2.5 million, that’s just fuel and maintenance,” Harland said. “The departments that are changing over to battery electric vehicles because of the way we do cost allocation they’re the ones that actually benefit the most from electrifying their fleet and so we pass those direct savings on to them.” 

The city is also piloting BEV programs with the Austin Police Department and the city’s waste management system. 

In partnership with the police department, the city has introduced an electric pursuit-rated vehicle to frontline law enforcement, a vehicle category that logs 18 million miles annually, or 40% of total fleet mileage, and has the highest idle time across the fleet.

“The units are already on the ground and have spent time at the training academy and a formal launch communication to council is forthcoming,” Harland said. 

The city is also piloting electric refuse trucks, the fleet’s most demanding and costly vehicles per mile, as a key test of how electric models perform under heavy-duty, high-intensity use.

“These pilots allow us to assess real world duty cycles, evaluate reliability, charging logistics and maintenance requirements before making large-scale capital investments,” Harland said. 

With the expansion of the fleet size, the city is also growing its charging infrastructure. 

Cameron Freberg, energy efficiency services manager with Austin Energy, said the city is partnering with a consulting firm and various departments to study current charging infrastructure and identify future expansion options to support BEV adoption for its fleet, employees and the public.

Freberg also said that Austin’s Electric Vehicle Charging Policy aims to expand access to well-regulated EV charging stations at city facilities, supporting fleet, employee and public use while promoting adoption, reducing congestion and standardizing usage guidelines.

Council Member Ryan Alter noted that the fleet’s 2030 BEV goal was scaled back from 1,000 to 700.

Harland said that the supply chain fallout from Covid-19 affected their initial timelines. “We had a lot of back order, and so we thought we would be a little further along,” Harland said. “Now, our goals and our forecasts are conservative… I am going to take a conservative line on it and meet the 700 and then I am going to try to exceed that to the best of my ability.” 

“We’re building the infrastructure, deploying the vehicles, and executing a long-term strategy that works,” Harland said. “This isn’t just a pilot, it’s a citywide shift.”