Thirty cities in the US are banding together to jointly purchase around 114,000 vehicles in various electric or fuel cell forms.
The group purchase would be a surge in demand for EVs like BMW i3, Tesla Model 3 and Model S, Nissan LEAD and NV200 and Chevrolet Bolt, and mean steady income stretched over a number of years.
The plan is only in the planning and discussion stage, however would be a deal worth approximately $10 billion US, replacing thousands of passenger cars and light trucks.
An engineering initiative is also in play with such a proposal for vehicles such as fire trucks, garbage truck and police cars adapted, retrofitted or wholly redesigned from scratch to feature zero-emission drivetrains.
According to Bloomberg, the $10B proposal would be equivalent to 72 per cent volume of US plug-in electric car sales in 2016.
The joint-venture is being lead by California and includes New York and Chicago. However these cities are only asking for proposals from manufacturers. Mayors hope to jumpstart carmakers by showing demand for EVs is robut.
In 2014, Indianapolis announced it planned to change its entire fleet to post-oil technology by 2025, and in 2015 New York unveiled its initiative to add 2000 EVs to its fleet by the same year. LA has already begun procuring 160 battery powered vehicles, and 128 plug-in hybrids among its city agencies.
Early this year Seattle, Portland and Oregon requested information from manufacturers on a 24,000-strong joint-order of EVs.
Story sourced from Green Car Reports article here.
