The Redondo Beach City Council Tuesday discussed an update to its vehicle fleet services guide, allowing city staff to expand its purchasing options with regards to low- and zero-emission vehicles as part of the city’s efforts to reduce its carbon footprint.
The request was made by council at the city’s Oct. 14 Strategic Planning session, with the idea of creating a zero-emission vehicle purchasing policy similar to the State of California.
Currently, the city has 23 low-emission vehicles and 12 zero-emission vehicles — 28 percent of the 123-vehicle motor pool (discounting public safety vehicles), according to staff. With six city vehicles scheduled to end their useful lives with the next three fiscal years, the city could purchase natural gas, hybrid, battery electric or hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicles as replacements.
However, the City currently lacks electric vehicle charging stations of its own, and the only hydrogen fuel cell charging station currently in the South Bay is located in East Torrance.
It’s also a costly system to buy into: Retrofitting a vehicle to run on natural gas costs between $6,000 and $12,000, and the cost of purchasing a hydrogen fuel cell vehicle can jump the price $35,000 over a conventional vehicle.
District 1 Councilman Jeff Ginsburg, who has championed the concept, continued his support, arguing that fuel and maintenance costs over a vehicle’s effective life can make the purchase more cost-effective than a conventional car.
“The ideal type of [alternative-fuel] vehicle is parking patrol, where we find many vehicles doing stop-and-starts, idling all day,” he said.
The council voted to receive and file the staff report, authorizing staff to update the city’s Fleet Services Guide to include low- and zero-emission purchasing provisions.
