Boynton orders first electric car for city use
Building inspectors to use 107-mile range Leaf; it will charge overnight.
BOYNTON BEACH — B oy n t o n Beach city employees this week will place an order for new and replacement cars and trucks, such as the usual Ford Escape for the engineering department, an F-150 for the sanitation department and for the first time in Boynton history, an electric car — a Nissan Leaf — for the building department.
The Leaf is a fully electric car with a 107-mile range and a 30kilowatt-hour battery. The city will buy the car in white for $22,622.
“We’ve been considering alternative energy vehicles for a number of years as part of our climate action plan,” said Jeff Livergood, the city’s director of public works and engineering.
Livergood expects the city to have the car within the next several months. A building inspector will drive it during the day, and charge it overnight at City Hall.
Conserving energy and using alternative energy has grown increasingly more important to residents, and other Palm Beach County cities are falling right in line with that trend:
■ Jupiter has one electric car, a Ford Focus that the engineering department uses. The town has two electric-vehicle charging stations outside town hall, and they are open to the public to use for free.
■ Lake Worth doesn’t have an electric vehicle, but is considering installing electric charging stations.
■ In Boca Raton and Delray Beach, The Downtowner, a private company, has a permit with the cities to drive residents around in electric cars for free.
In Boynton, staff chose a building inspector to drive the c ar because of the limited amount of miles typically driven in that job.
“The 110-mile range will easily satisfy needs or daily use of (the) building inspector,” Livergood said.
According to Bloomberg.com, 30 cities, including New York and Chicago, are asking automakers for the cost and feasibility of providing 114,000 electric cars. These would include police cruisers, street sweepers and trash trucks. Urban leaders, the report says, want more low-emission vehicles to help climate control, despite automakers saying people aren’t buying the vehicles.
The city will evaluate how successful the Leaf is: How much energy savings is there? How much vehicle maintenance compared to nonelectric cars?
If satisfied, the Leaf will be the first of a fleet.