New York City has released maintenance costs for its city fleet in 2018, and the city refers to the cost difference between its electric cars and gas-powered cars as “dramatic.”
A New York City Fleet Newsletter this month reveals the cost comparisons in depth. It compares maintenance costs of all-electric cars, hybrids, and gas vehicles during the past year, and finds that all-electrics come out on top:
“NYC Fleet has more experience with electric vehicles than most, so we took a look at last year’s maintenance costs with the DCAS client fleet to see if these service benefits are materializing. Right now, servicing costs with our all-electric vehicle models is dramatically less than with gas, hybrid, or hybrid plug-in models. In general, our hybrid models also achieve benefits from gas models, though the most dramatic results in this report are with the all electrics.”
The newsletter takes a closer look at 10 models: three all-electric models, four hybrids, and three gas cars. The three all-electric cars — the Chevy Bolt, the Ford Focus Electric, and Nissan Leaf — were lowest in annual maintenance costs, ranging from $204 with the Bolt to $386 with the Focus Electric.
A few of the hybrid vehicles cost the city more than $1,000 in maintenance in 2018, and gas vehicles like the Ford Fusion and Focus checked in with a maintenance cost average of $1,621 and $1,805, respectively.
The newsletter notes the typical reasons for maintenance savings in the newsletter — regenerative braking, no oil change, spark plugs, or transmission fluids — but also says that stolen mufflers and catalytic converters have become an issue for the fleet’s gas and hybrid cars.
‘Exciting Transition’
While the city notes that its EVs are still early in their expected life cycle of “ten or so years,” the newsletter concludes:
“All early indicators are that we are achieving the fuel, emissions, and maintenance benefits of this exciting transition away from the internal combustion engine.”
Quartz asked the city to send annualized costs of the car models, and posted a comparison of the Nissan Leaf, Toyota Prius, and gas-powered Ford Fusion. Even factoring the higher purchase price and the cost of an EV charger, the Leaf had the lowest overall costs over a nine-year period.
While EV owners won’t be surprised by these findings, the country’s largest city hailing these results in an official newsletter is the sort of indicator that alludes to widespread EV adoption in the coming years.
New York City has a webpage dedicated to fleet sustainability, claiming its fleet “is the greenest in the nation.” The city now operates more than 1,224 on-road EVs and plug-in hybrids.