Cincinnati committee hears plan to expand public EV charging and electrify city fleet

The Climate, Environment and Infrastructure Committee heard a progress update on electric-vehicle (EV) charging and fleet electrification, including two federal and regional grants, a contract with a private curbside-charging vendor and a consultant plan recommending initial focus on passenger cars and SUVs.

The committee was told the city was awarded $850,000 through the Federal Highway Administration Charging and Fueling Infrastructure grant and expects about $1.2 million from a regional Carbon Reduction Grant administered by OKI to install DC fast chargers in neighborhood business districts. Director Ollie Kroner, Administration, described those and other efforts as part of a strategy to “make it easier to live without a car” while electrifying the remaining vehicle trips; he said, “This will be $850,000 that will support EV charging across the city.”

Why it matters: transportation produces roughly one-third of the city’s estimated 6 million tons of annual carbon dioxide emissions, and officials said expanding public charging is a key step to reduce private-vehicle emissions. The city is pursuing multiple lines of work — public- and curbside-charging deployments, fleet charging hubs, telematics data collection and a certification process to reduce regulatory friction — that together are intended to make charging more equitable and operationally reliable.

City grants and private contract Kroner and staff described three complementary efforts for public and curbside charging. The FHWA award will support curbside and public charging work. A separate Carbon Reduction Grant (about $1.2 million, via OKI) is targeted to install level 3 fast chargers in neighborhood business districts. Kroner also said the city has finalized a contract with Green Spot, a private operator experienced in other U.S. cities, to install curbside chargers at metered parking spaces; those chargers would remain subject to standard parking fees and would add an additional charge for electricity. Kroner said, “We hope we have a vision to install a 100 of these over the next 5 years.” He added the city retains a right to buy the equipment from the vendor.

Fleet electrification plan and findings Rob McCracken, Office of Environmental Services, and a Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL) consultant summarized a fleet study that examined roughly 1,800 city vehicles and narrowed the analysis to about 1,400 units for detailed review. JLL reported about 900 vehicles (roughly 66% of the analyzed set) have operationally suitable EV equivalents; when life-cycle costs are considered, about 54% of analyzed vehicles showed potential net savings, which JLL estimated as roughly $10,000,000 in life-cycle savings across the identified set. JLL recommended concentrating early purchases on passenger cars and SUVs — lower-risk conversions that would allow the city to build charging capacity and operational experience before addressing more complex medium- and heavy-duty vehicles.

McCracken told the committee that the city’s vehicle inventory currently includes about 60 fully electric vehicles and nine plug-in hybrids; purchases over the past year included Ford Mustang Mach-E models, Ford Lightning trucks and at least one Ford E-Transit van. He said available charging for city vehicles is limited and largely non-networked: “we rely on a number of level 2 chargers… and a number that are still on the level 1 chargers,” and that non-networked outlets do not provide usage data.

Technical and operational next steps Officials said the near-term technical priorities are: (1) converting existing level 1/240-volt outlets at city facilities to networked “smart” level 2 chargers so the city can collect telematics and charging data; (2) executing the Green Spot curbside rollout in coordination with parking and the Department of Transportation and Engineering; and (3) designing larger fleet charging hubs at concentrated dwell locations (including a Bates Avenue fleet site and a potential cluster at the Port Authority’s Plum Street garage). Kroner gave an implementation timeline that expects smart-charger upgrades in the first half of the year, public curbside chargers beginning to be installed later this year, with larger charging-hub engineering and construction moving into the following year, subject to funding.

Data, costing and incentives Officials emphasized the importance of telematics — vehicle-tracking software — to identify which units are appropriate for electrification after 6–12 months of operational data. JLL reported that a large majority of city vehicles travel less than 30 miles per day, a usage profile that favors level 2 charging for many units. Committee members pressed staff on the cost of public charging (variable across operators) and on federal incentive uncertainty; JLL said much of its analysis assumed current federal tax credits and that market price convergence over several years could continue to support electrification even if incentives change.

Public comment and operational concerns A public commenter, Stefan Pryor, raised concerns about cold-weather battery performance, telling the committee that “the cold weather can impact the range and efficiencies of the electric vehicles.” Council members said tracking telematics and networked charging data will be used to monitor real-world winter performance and operational impacts on range.

Unresolved questions and constraints Committee members and staff flagged several constraints: capital funding for larger charging hubs remains to be secured; some city facilities would require electrical service upgrades to support concentrated chargers; and electrifying specialty vehicles (police, fire, snowplows, medium- and heavy-duty upfitted trucks) likely requires further study and use-case validation before large-scale replacement. Officials said police and fire vehicles were excluded from JLL’s initial 400-vehicle-by-2028 planning target.

The committee did not take formal votes. Staff said they will proceed with the Green Spot contract deployment, finalize a vendor to install networked fleet chargers, begin telematics rollout and pursue the identified grant funding and potential CSR rail-sale proceeds to support capital costs.

The committee scheduled no immediate further action but expects staff to return with implementation details, site selections for curbside chargers and telematics baseline data later in the year.