Priorities
Electric Vehicle Fleets
Fleet electrification offers another important step toward scale manufacture of vehicles and infrastructure.
The nation’s fleet vehicles offer the opportunity to help drive the initial ramp-up of scale for electric vehicles and drivetrain components. The operational norms of certain fleet segments—such as centralized refueling, high vehicle utilization rates and predictable routing—may allow them to rapidly surmount the most difficult challenges facing electrification in the passenger market. Perhaps most significantly, fleet owners may be more willing to focus on total cost of vehicle ownership as opposed to upfront cost.
By driving initial capacity, providing practical business experience with both private and public charging infrastructure, and demonstrating the reliability of electric drive vehicles to consumers throughout the United States, electrified fleet vehicles would provide substantial spillover benefits to the broader consumer market.
To facilitate the wider deployment of GEVs by fleet operators, the Coalition recommends:
- Expanding the tax credits for light-duty grid-enabled vehicles purchased to include private-sector fleets
- Creating tax credits for medium- and heavy-duty grid-enabled vehicles deployed in private-sector fleets with more than 10 vehicles in operation
- Creating clean renewable energy bonds for fleet vehicle charging infrastructure, and make municipal and regional transit authorities eligible for the bonds
- Extending the existing tax credit for electric vehicle charging infrastructure through 2018 and expand the range of eligible costs to include necessary utility and facility owner upgrades
- Incentivizing the establishment of special purpose entities to facilitate fleet bulk purchasing of electric drive vehicles