Over the past year, the City of Waco has begun to dabble in the use of electric vehicles. Hector Sabido is a city council member for district two and is the Mayor Pro Tem. He says that the members of the city council really want to make a push for doing more for the environment.
Sabido says the council is going to...
“Dig into how effective EV’s are, electric vehicles are, but also we want to make sure that we’re still being fiscally responsible with the tax payer’s dollars.”
Currently the City of Waco has roughly 770 vehicles in its fleet, and as the older sedans begin to come to the end of their use, the city has begun the process of replacing them with new, electric vehicles.
The latest one, a Chevy Volt, is being added to the Information Technology department. So far, the city has a total of 4 EV’s. Two are in Fleet Services and one for a park ranger.
Kelly Holecek is the Director of General Services for the City of Waco and says the city started with one E-V, to see how it would fit the needs of different departments.
“See if it performs adequately for what their needs are during the day, what their concerns are. Several departments that utilize sedans right now that are extremely excited to switch over to an electric car”
While the City of Waco is taking a slower approach, other cities like Austin, are moving quickly to switch to electric vehicles. Austin is wanting to reach a goal of having at least 5% of their fleet to be all electric by the end of 2022.
I spoke with Dave DeRosier. He’s the General Manager of Freddie Kish’s Complete Car Care Center to see if he’s seen a rise in electric vehicles coming into the shop. He says not yet, but the time is coming as more and more automakers begin to produce more electric vehicles. He also says that overall, the EV’s can save you money.
“Especially if it’s a car that is just in town car, you’re going back and forth to work, your only running 15 to 20 miles a day, definitely cost savings there.”
DeRosier says the cost for an electric vehicle should be decreasing in the next couple of years.
“Once you start seeing more of those vehicles, the cost of them overall is going to go down cause their manufacturing costs are going to drop. The price of the components, and the batteries, and the technology cost involved to develop are all going to drop.”
It seems the one thing everyone told me, E-V’s are fun to drive...
“(hood opening) so this is the frunk,
As in the front trunk,
“it’s pretty crazy to look in there and there’s not an engine, so, big battery underneath, it’s pretty heavy, which actually makes the vehicle drive really differently, and really great.
I reached out to Claire Kultgen McDonald, she’s the president of Bird Kultgen Ford. She was more than happy to show off the new Mustang Mach E. It’s Ford’s all electric version of the Mustang. It’s has a range of 230 miles on a full charge, and lots of power...
“So, i won’t do anything wild, no worries, see there’s plenty of torque, wow. There’s no shifting, so it’s super smooth, wow,”
We got the Mustang Mach E to 60 miles an hour in just a few seconds.
Ford recently announced the new Ford f-150 Lightning. It’s the new all electric pick-up truck, and McDonald says they’ve already had numerous people put down a deposit for one.
Right now, the City of Waco is not offering any incentives for businesses or persons to purchase an electric vehicle. However, the government is offering a tax credit if you do decide to buy one.