New Leaf Unfurled – Partners ‘Charged’ Over Green Effort
Community partners stand in front of shared electric car, l-r UNBC President George Iwama, Northern Health VP Human Resources & Corporate Services Jane Lindstrom, Prince George Mayor Shari Green, Fraser Fort George Regional District Board Chair Art Kaehn
Prince George, BC – ‘Drive Clean, Breathe Green’ is the main slogan emblazoned on the side of the new 100-percent electric vehicle that will be shared by the City of Prince George, Northern Health, UNBC, and the Regional District of Fraser-Fort George.
To the applause of those gathered at a BBQ on the front lawn of City Hall to celebrate the acquisition this afternoon, Mayor Shari Green and the heads of the other agencies drove up in the Nissan Leaf.
"How much fun was this?" said Northern Health’s VP of Human Resources and Corporate Services, Jane Lindstrom. (click on photo at right for a video clip)
Lindstrom said she has been to many presentations, but has never been escorted in a state-of-the-art vehicle. The City of Prince George purchased the $44-thousand dollar vehicle and four charging stations with a grant from the Community Works Fund – the fund provides federal gas tax funding to communities to support projects that reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The City was also able to take advantage of a $5000 incentive from the provincial government.
The four community partners have a Memorandum of Understanding that sees each one use the vehicle on a quarterly basis and share associated operating costs.
Lindstrom said it was a natural partnership for Northern Health. "We are looking at refreshing our fleet and we’re paying very strong attention to vehicles that are safe for our staff to drive and are efficient for the economic reasons – because that frees up more resources for direct care – and this has the additional benefit of reducing our carbon footprint."
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The City’s Manager of Supply and Fleet Services, Scott Bone, said the car was purchased locally from Northland Nissan and the dealership will provide all technical and warranty support.
"This vehicle has zero emissions. This vehicle does not operate on engine oil. Maintenance cost for this vehicle is approximately 60-percent lower than a comparable gasoline engine," Bone told the crowd. The cost of electricity to operate the Leaf for a year will be about $300, compared to annual fuel costs of as much as $3100 for a comparable gasoline vehicle.
"Research indicates that under normal driving conditions on a day like this, the range of electric vehicles is approximately 160-kilometres," he said. "Under winter conditions, we can certainly expect – because it’s a battery – some diminished capacity, but on the driving distance, we expect 120-kilometres before charging."
UNBC is first in line to test the vehicle, for a three-month period beginning September 1st. Bone said the City wanted the December to February stretch to fully monitor and assess how it performs during the winter months.
FFGRD Board Chair, Art Kaehn, said, "The lower operating and maintenance costs of these vehicles are very attractive, so we certainly look forward to seeing how the performance goes over the coming years and this will determine how a 100-percent electric vehicle may fit into our future fleet plans."
Prince George Mayor Shari Green said one of the top ten goals identified in the myPG process was to be a green city. She said residents want government and local organizations to demonstrate sustainable practises and this unique community partnership is a step in that direction.
The vehicle is a key in meeting the City’s Green Fleet strategy and the mayor said it will be complemented by other initiatives like trip and route planning to optimize efficiency, idling reduction, and enhanced preventative maintenance to improve the City’s overall fleet performance.
Speaking on behalf of the Province, Prince George-Mount Robson MLA, Shirley Bond, congratulated the partners, saying residents in Northern BC will always be dependent on transportation, but this car is a look at what the future holds in store to meet those needs.
Comments
No mention of a membership with BCAA? How’s the warranty? You wreck it you pay for it? How much is insurance for all these folks driving it? They all have to take out their own ICBC policy?
More than likely it will be under the City’s fleet policy with each operating entity having to carry an ICBC financial responsibility card with then when they use it. It’s the old “leased to” policy coverage that is fully transferable. BCAA is not allowed to get involved in government fleet deals.
Ask them how much a replacement battery costs. Will likely more than exceed the savings.
Imminent fail.
I guess it is a bit of a stretch from all the quad cab hemi powered pickups you see city employees in.
Thats a lot of high priced help to sell a car.
Their time would be better spent on finding out how to reduce costs in their various fields.
Good luck driving that at -35. Electric vehicles tend to have half their range, or more, in low temperatures.
I doubt they’ll see 120, is what I’m trying to say.
At 44,000 this is a real deal. about the same price as the City and the Health unit pay for their trucks and SUV’s that they drive just to haul people around.
Wonderm if the Core Review will pick this up. If they dont we have just blown away another 300 000 bucks.
Cheers
http://green.autoblog.com/2011/09/30/nissan-addresses-leaf-battery-life-replacement-costs
There seem to be lots of “guesstimates” of how much a replacement battery or part of a battery will cost and exactly how far a car will have to be dirven and how often it is re-charged and whether it is recharge quickly or slowly, etc. etc.
I guess if no one knows, this is a part of a real live testing program or pilot.
Which all leads me to wonder why one has to pay the amount for the car which is reported to have been paid for it. Why are we involved with testing somethng at our cost that the car manufacturer should be doing?
The least I would expect is to get the battery taken care of for nothing if no one can provide a figure of roughly how long the battery will last and how much it will cost to replace.
Subsidy on a car based on falsified science, no wonder PG is in such poor shape. Taking the dept this city is in why are we playing this silly little game.
http://inventors.about.com/od/estartinventions/a/History-Of-Electric-Vehicles.htm
As per the above link, battery powered cars have been around since the early 1800’s – in more modern times around the late 1980’s a major auto maker (Ford) produced a small pick-up truck that was battery powered. It’s production was ceased because a battery change out was $7000.00 and buyers shied away from them. I suspect that a battery change out for a Nissan Leaf would be close to that price if not higher. Depending on how much the Leaf is driven, it won’t take long that what ever is saved in fuel will be spent on batteries.
I’m not overly familiar with electric cars… but how is this going to effect the hydro bill at city hall now? Does it take a lot to charge it back up after a full day of use?
Nevermind, re-read the article. About $300/year which isn’t bad.
http://www.autoguide.com/manufacturer/nissan/2012-nissan-leaf-review-video-1843.html
Onboard trickle charger charges the car in 20 hours!!!
Or 7 hours with the 240V $2000.00+ option.
Or 30 minutes with a $40,000.00+ DC EV Public charger which is hard on the $20,000.00 battery.
Oh well the tax payers in PG have money to burn.
When hybrids came out the big question was the batteries. Some of the hybrids are over ten years old now have they all had new batteries put in? They never talk about them on the news anymore.
The Volt is a good idea but unfortunately, simply another “want” from City Council. Are we all supposed to abandon the old gas burner for one of these? Think of the battery drain for air conditioning — won’t last more than 2 hours near a golf
course in Osoyoos. How about driving uphill in the Canyon to Lytton at 40 degrees with the A/C running?
This car is a runabout good weather car and that’s the bottom line. City use only and David Suzuki is still flying everywhere he goes to yap about CO2.
Why cant we just blend the car into society, and render it “success” or NOT. Why do we need have a bbq to celebrate this crap at the tax payers expence, I was not invited, were you? and Shari could have dressed better for the occasion, hat and frills, petticoat and gloves,,,, I mean really like what the heck….so sick of this city.
The Volt would of been a better choice. Although slightly more expensive the car will charge in 10hours @ 120V and 4 hour @ 240V. So no need for an expensive charging station. And if you run out of battery power you aren’t stranded. This would of made more sense to test in the north because people might be more willing to buy something that isn’t going to need a tow after 100km.
There is no reason why the City should of become involved in this dumb project.
As has been mentioned if this is such a big deal why did Nissan not provide the vehile for testing free of charge.
This Leaf runs along the same lines as the community heating project a waste of tax dollars.
Cheers
Credit should be given where credit is due, and it is; however,contrary to the sunshine club of PG – the I’m not OK, you’re not OK, this is not OK but that’s OK – this is another ridiculous example of a big waste of cash.
Four sectors of government and one taxpaying population represented here on a pipe dream, this is cool, let’s see how cool it might be so let’s just write a cheque….load of BS. Gus is correct, if it is all that and a bag of chips in this region then let the manufacturer spend the time and money on woo-ing (sp?) the buying public.
BUT, we can’t afford to cut our grass, and we are picking over whether we should enjoy first rate snow removal at the same time we are trying to attract the senior population. OR support a group like Habitat For Humanity group with waiving their various City fees in their efforts to assist with the homelessness objectives…at a fraction of the cost of this giant lawnmower. Sigh.
I think the city needs more help from the PUBLIC for its spending ideas. Handing all our tax money decisions over to a small group of people like this is really not a good idea.
Any news at all about the local girl from CNC who converted a small pickup to electricity? I’ve never heard any more about how that vehicle is doing, anybody know?
Is that the same little girl who ground up plastic bottles and used them as filler in asphalt mix for roads?
Amazing and these people actually lined up for a picture. This town really is doomed.
seamutt I was thinking the same, I wouldn,t be caught in that picture unless I was behind the car with a paper bag over my head
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