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The federal government has more than 600,000 civilian vehicles – trucks, vans and passenger vehicles – with the vast majority running on gasoline or diesel. On Monday, Joe Biden promised to change that.
“The federal government has a huge fleet of vehicles, which we are going to replace with clean electric vehicles made here in America,” Biden said at a news conference to announce a new “Buy the American” initiative.
It will not be easy. In 2019, the most recent year for which data are available, the federal government owned less than 3,000 battery-powered electric vehicles – less than half of one percent of the federal vehicle fleet.
Vehicles powered by gasoline and diesel represented 63% of the federal fleet that year, while “flex-fuel” vehicles, capable of burning 85% of the ethanol mixture, represented another 31%. Only 4% of federal vehicles were hybrids in 2019 and most of them were not plug-in hybrids.
The slow progress was not due to lack of attempts. In recent decades, Congress has passed a number of laws forcing the federal government to adopt more energy-efficient vehicles and lower emissions. Under Barack Obama, the federal government has made some progress. For example, the number of hybrid vehicles increased from 1,766 in 2008 to 25,059 in 2017. The number of vehicles powered by ethanol increased from 129,000 in 2008 to 201,000 in 2017.
This progress was not easy. Federal agencies need a variety of vehicle types, from sedans to large trucks and vans. In some cases, agencies found it difficult to find low-emission vehicles that met their requirements. Some agencies also operated in parts of the country where alternative fuels and charging infrastructure were not available.
Hybrid and electric vehicles have lower emissions than conventional vehicles, but were significantly more expensive than conventional vehicles. A 2019 report from the Government Accountability Office estimated the cost of low-emission vehicles for fiscal 2017. He found that hybrid cars cost up to $ 5,200 more than a conventional vehicle. Plug-in hybrid vehicles cost $ 8,700 to $ 15,300 more than conventional vehicles. Battery-powered electric cars cost an extra $ 8,900.
Trump canceled Obama’s green car initiative
In 2015, President Obama signed an executive order requiring agencies to make plans for 20% of their vehicle purchases to be zero-emission vehicles or plug-in hybrids by 2020. This increased the target to 50% by 2025. But in 2018, President Trump signed a new executive order canceling these goals. Progress towards low-emission vehicles has stalled. The number of flex-fuel, hybrid and battery-powered vehicles in the federal fleet decreased between 2018 and 2019.
Now, Biden is looking to restart and possibly speed up Obama’s efforts. It will be easier now than when Obama signed his executive decree in 2015. Rapid drops in battery costs mean that plug-in hybrids and battery-powered electric vehicles are more accessible now. Battery-powered electric vehicles have not yet reached price parity with conventional vehicles, but the gap has narrowed and experts expect it to close completely by 2025 – the year that Biden’s first term ends.
There is now a much wider range of battery-powered electric vehicles for federal agencies to choose from – including an increasing number of trucks, vans and SUVs. The amount of loading infrastructure is also increasing rapidly.
Despite all these gains, electrifying 100% of the electric fleet will be a major project. Although Biden stated this as a goal, he did not give a specific timetable. In any conceivable scenario, it will take a decade or more to fully replace the federal government’s 381,000 conventional vehicles and 191,000 flex-fuel vehicles with battery-powered electric alternatives.