City of Medicine Hat Chevy Bolt and Hyundai Kona

OVERVIEW

As part of the Action Centre’s Electric Vehicles for Municipalities (EVM) Program, the City of Medicine Hat purchased two new battery electric vehicles – a 2021 Chevrolet Bolt and a 2020 Hyundai Kona, along with a Level 2 charging station. The Chevy Bolt will be used for employee transportation around the City and the Hyundai Kona will be used as a photo radar vehicle. The City’s primary motivation behind the project was to reduce operating costs and greenhouse gas emissions.

This project was completed in June 2021.

APPROACH

The City’s Chevrolet Bolt and Hyundai Kona have replaced two older fleet vehicles, a 2010 Ford F-150 and a 2007 Chevy Equinox respectively, leading to significant greenhouse gas emissions reductions. Included in the project is a 12 kW ChargePoint CPF50 level 2 EV charging station with a standard SAE J1772 plug that will be used to charge the vehicle at the Medicine Hat Police Station.

RESULTS

By switching to electric vehicles, the City will be eliminating any operational emissions, leading to a reduction in environmental impact, as well as significantly lower fuel and maintenance costs. These EVs are expected to reduce overall emissions by at least 60 per cent each when compared to the older fleet vehicles they replaced and together will cut annual fuel and maintenance costs by over $5,000. The vehicles join the City’s growing fleet of fully electric mobile assets including scissor lifts, forklifts, small utility vehicles, and two electric ice resurfacers (Click here to see Medicine Hat’s Electric Zamboni EVM project).

The City plans to continue making targeted investments in electric and hybrid vehicles in the near future.

“We realize significant cost savings with each electric vehicle added to the city’s fleet. In both fuel and maintenance costs, we have estimated that we’ll see savings of up to 80 per cent compared to a traditional fuel vehicle. In addition, switching to electric vehicles will eliminate operational emissions, leading to a reduction in environmental impact.”

Cory Earle, Manager of Fleet Services