City staff brief committee on CCAP fleet electrification progress and charging‑station challenges

Paul White II, interim director of the Office of Environmental Quality and Sustainability, and Vincent Olson, interim director of Equipment and Fleet Management, briefed the Parks, Trails and Environment Committee March 3 on the city’s progress toward CCAP Goal 3 — electrifying municipal vehicles.

Olson said the city’s electrification program has been underway for years and highlighted three takeaways from a National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) study: continue existing fuel‑reduction programs, invest in charging infrastructure and prioritize electrification where it yields operational benefit. He reported the city has 124 electric vehicles in the procurement pipeline, including passenger buses and delivery vans, and that several electric vehicles are now deployed in the motor pool for shared use.

On infrastructure, Olson described progress and constraints for two charger classes. Level 3 (fast) chargers have been installed or are under development at some central sites; transformer lead times — he said 45–50 weeks in many cases — have delayed additional fast‑charger rollouts. Level 2 (overnight) charger installations have proceeded at City Hall (Blink chargers replaced and expanded), Central Service Center and are under construction at Northeast, Southeast and Southwest service centers; Olson said the Northeast site will include a bank of roughly 23 level‑2 chargers and that combined capacity at service centers and City Hall will allow overnight charging for roughly 200 vehicles when installations are complete.

Olson identified opportunities and challenges: vehicle pricing and availability have recently improved (reducing the cost gap with internal‑combustion vehicles in some categories), but vendor attrition, software and data‑ownership issues, product support and warranty/service arrangements remain concerns for long‑term fleet sustainability. He said chargers under current contracts typically carry a five‑year warranty clause and that procurement timelines for some EV models have shortened relative to earlier years.

Committee members asked technical and policy questions. Chair Moreno asked about the useful life of charging hardware; Olson said warranties generally extend five years but noted technology is evolving quickly. Committee members asked about federal grant opportunities; Olson and staff said the city had applied to regional efforts and to the federal Charging and Fueling Infrastructure discretionary grant (round 2) and intends to reapply for subsequent rounds and pursue regional partnership opportunities through NCTCOG.

Olson said the department will prioritize “low‑hanging fruit” at service centers — locating chargers where existing electrical capacity can accommodate installations without expensive transformer upgrades — and will continue interdepartmental coordination to sequence vehicle deliveries with charger availability. The committee asked staff to continue seeking federal and regional grant partnerships to reduce capital costs and to return with updates on deployment schedules and operational impacts.

No committee action was taken during the briefing; staff said they will return to committee with additional detail as infrastructure and vehicle deliveries advance.