San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria signed an update to the city's Climate Action Plan, which includes setting a goal of net-zero greenhouse emissions by 2035, according to CBS 8. To kickstart that, the updated Climate Action Plan includes steps the city will take to transition most of its fleet to a zero-emission vehicle (ZEV) fleet. The city council approved the update last week.
By 2030, the city hopes to have:
75% passenger ZEVs,
50% light-duty ZEVs,
50% medium-duty ZEVs, and
50% heavy-duty ZEVs.
By 2035, the city hopes to have:
100% passenger ZEVs,
100% light-duty ZEVs,
75% medium-duty ZEVs, and
75% heavy-duty ZEVs.
Creating a Mostly Zero-Emission Fleet
To achieve these goals, the city will create standards for its purchase of fuel for fleet vehicles that contains the lowest levels of lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions available. The city will also update its environmentally preferable purchasing regulations -- its guidelines and procedures for purchases of "environmentally preferable" products and services -- to include electric vehicles (EVs).
The city will also update its municipal parking yard electric infrastructure to support EV charging needs, as well as explore pilot projects for a variety of "grid resilience services" (i.e. demand response, emergency back-up, demand charge reduction, etc.) through three modes of EV integration: gride-to-vehicle, vehicle-to-building, and vehicle-to-grid.
In order to provide the electric vehicle supply equipment (EVSE) needed, the city will seek partnerships with San Diego Community Power -- an organization dedicated to providing affordable clean energy, San Diego Gas & Electric -- the city's natural gas and electricity provider, and other organizations to install charging infrastructure for all vehicle types.
Assuming the municipal fleet gasoline use does not increase from its baseline year 2019, these are the greenhouse gas emissions reduction projections for 2030 and 2035. The emissions reduction is based on a projection from the city's 2020 Climate Action Plan reductions.
Photo: City of San Diego
As of the end of 2020, approximately 20 vehicles in the city's fleet were on-road EVs. Relatively high up-front costs and a lack of variety in vehicle models had previously limited EV adoption within the fleet, according to the report. The largest barrier, though, is the "cost and complexity of installing the refueling stations for all-electric vehicles across the city for public service needs and shift utilization."
