City Expands Eco-Friendly Fleet
CONTRIBUTING WRITER: Zachary Eichholz, Sustainability Program Manager + Resilience Planner, City of Cape Canaveral
The City of Cape Canaveral has taken delivery of its fourth hybrid vehicle within its fleet, a new Toyota RAV4, which has been assigned to Infrastructure Maintenance. This SUV gets 41 mpg in City driving conditions and will switch over to battery power while at idle or driving at slow speeds, saving both fuel and emissions. The onboard batteries are recharged via regenerative braking.
Hybrid vehicles save the City thousands of dollars on fuel costs compared to equivalent all-gas vehicles over the operational life of the vehicle. The City now has a total of five vehicles that can be considered “electrified” in that they use batteries as a means of either full or partial power and propulsion, including one all-electric Ford Focus. Over the next few months, the City will also be acquiring another all-electric vehicle, a Nissan Leaf, and another Toyota RAV4 hybrid for Code Enforcement duties, bringing the total number of electrified vehicles in the fleet to seven by the end of 2021. This represents just over 20% of the fleet.
