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The federal government owns more than 600,000 civilian vehicles – trucks, vans and passenger vehicles – with the vast majority used on petrol or diesel. On Monday, Joe Biden promised to change that.
“The federal government owns a huge fleet of vehicles that we are going to replace with clean electric vehicles manufactured here in America,” Biden said at a news conference announcing a new “Buy American” initiative.
It will not be easy. In 2019, the most recent year for which data is available, the federal government owned less than 3,000 battery-powered electric vehicles – less than half of one percent of the federal vehicle fleet.
Gasoline and diesel vehicles accounted for 63 percent of the federal fleet that year, while vehicles with flex-fuel that could burn an 85 percent ethanol blend accounted for another 31 percent. Only 4 percent of federal vehicles were hybrids in 2019 and most of these were not plug-in hybrids.
The slow progress was not the lack of trying. Over the past few decades, Congress has passed several laws that oblige the federal government to use more energy-efficient and lower-emission vehicles. Under Barack Obama, the federal government did make progress. For example, the number of hybrid vehicles increased from 1,766 in 2008 to 25,059 in 2017. The number of ethanol-capable vehicles increased from 129,000 in 2008 to 201,000 in 2017.
That progress was not easy. Federal agencies need different types of vehicles, from sedans to large trucks and vans. In some cases, agencies have struggled to find low-emission vehicles that meet their requirements. Some agencies were also operating in parts of the country where alternative fuel and charging infrastructure were not available.
Hybrid and electric vehicles had lower emissions than ordinary vehicles, but they were significantly more expensive than ordinary vehicles. A report from the Government Offices in 2019 estimates the cost of low-emission vehicles for the 2017 financial year. Hybrid sedans have been found to cost up to $ 5,200 more than a regular vehicle. Plug-in hybrid vehicles cost $ 8,700 to $ 15,300 more than regular vehicles. Battery-electric sedans cost $ 8,900 extra.
Trump cancels Obama’s green car initiative
In 2015, President Obama signed an executive order requiring agencies to plan to plan 20 percent of their vehicle purchases by 2020 without emission vehicles or plug-in hybrids. This has increased the target to 50 percent by 2025. But in 2018, President Trump signed a new executive order canceling these targets. Progress towards low-emission vehicles has stopped. The number of electric vehicles with flex fuel, hybrid and battery in the federal navy decreased between 2018 and 2019.
Now Biden wants to resume Obama’s efforts and possibly speed them up. It will be easier now than when Obama signed his executive order in 2015. Rapid declines in the cost of batteries mean that plug-in hybrids and battery-electric vehicles are now cheaper. Battery-electric vehicles have not yet reached price equality with conventional vehicles, but the gap has narrowed and experts expect it to close completely by 2025 – the year Biden’s first term comes to an end.
There is now a much wider range of electric vehicles for batteries from which federal agencies can choose – including a growing number of trucks, pickups and SUVs. The amount of charging infrastructure is also increasing rapidly.
Despite all the gains, the electrification of 100 percent of the electric fleet will be a big project. While Biden stated this as a goal, he did not provide a specific timeline. Under any conceivable scenario, it would take a decade or longer to completely replace the federal government’s 381,000 conventional vehicles and 191,000 flex-fuel vehicles with batteries.