How a County Fleet Began its Electrification Journey on a Shoestring Budget

When electrification mandates are enacted, public sector fleet managers are often faced with tight budgets to help them adopt electric vehicle fleets. Aside from the vehicles themselves, the infrastructure needed to power those vehicles can be costly.

Al Curtis, fleet services director for Cobb County, Georgia, installed EV infrastructure on a shoestring budget. Government Fleet asked him how he achieved this gargantuan task on such a low budget.

The Benefits of Being Early Adopters

Curtis's team began the process of electrification in 2014. The team used telematics data to determine which vehicles could be transitioned to EVs and figure out whether they could meet the duty cycle of the county’s departments.

Curtis started with the low-hanging fruits – transitioning vehicles that only had 50- to 100-mile daily duty cycles. The department leased Nissan LEAFS.

The team also took advantage of grants available for early adopters from several organizations to help fund EV infrastructure. In order to receive one of those grants, the county had to make the chargers accessible to the public. The other grant allowed the county to install its own private chargers.

At the time the county began this process, the state of Georgia also had the $7,500 tax credit on top of the $7,500 federal tax credit. And since the county doesn’t pay taxes, these credits were passed onto Nissan to put toward the cost of the lease.

“We were able to lease Nissan Leafs for roughly about $230 a month, which was pretty much unheard of at that particular time for electric vehicles,” Curtis said.

Curtis was able to purchase non-networked ClipperCreek chargers for in-house charging. They only cost around $750 each. The department used electricians from an in-house maintenance property management company to run the power from the panels to the chargers, helping cut the installment cost.

Over time, the fleet was able to expand on its EVs. Now, the fleet has a mix of 65 all-electric vehicles ranging from sedans to an electric prisoner transport van.
The department also recently finished a solar resiliency project. The stored energy from the solar panels will act as backup power for the fleet facility and EV chargers when needed.

“That allows us to be more resilient when we do have a power loss. The building can still maintain its functions and be of service to our customers,” Curtis said.

Good News for New Adopters

It’s easy to read about what Cobb County did and believe it’s not possible to pull off a low-cost EV infrastructure and vehicle purchase in 2024. But as more fleets adopt EVs and more companies join the EV arena, expanding the variety of chargers available, Curtis said up-front costs are going down.

“Chargers have definitely become more affordable. And there's so many different options out there. There's something for fleet managers that don't want to…have to handle the chargers or have to do anything with them…There's companies right now that all you have to do is to give them a plot of [land where] you know you’re going to be able to charge your vehicles at,” Curtis said.

No Need to Reinvent the Wheel

When you’re planning for EV infrastructure installation, there’s no need to reinvent the wheel, Curtis said. He encourages fleet managers to seek out those who have already installed EV infrastructure to glean from them. As time passes, there are more fleet managers with this expertise who can help you through the process.

There are also consultants who can guide you through the process, as well as government resources like the U.S. Department of Energy’s Alternative Fuels Data Center. If you don’t have the time to learn from others, there are also other options available.

“If you want to take on the challenge of doing it and you're embracing it and you want to be able to tell your story about how you deployed [it on your own], do it. But if you don't have the time, manpower, or the skillset to be able to manage it, turn it over to someone else who does it for a living as a resident expert, and say, ‘I need these many chargers on this plot of land,'” Curtis explained.

Many turnkey solution providers also do the work of finding funding solutions for the infrastructure.

Take Advantage of Funding Opportunities and Grants

While some of the early adopter grants and tax credits may no longer be available, there are other options available to help fund your purchase of EVs, or your EV infrastructure installation.

The Commercial Clean Vehicle Credit — sometimes referred to as 45W — provides up to $40,000 for qualified commercial clean vehicles, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

The Alternative Fuel Vehicle Refueling Property Credit — also known as 30C — provides up to $100,000 for qualified charging and refueling infrastructure. Public sector fleets are eligible for direct payment of this credit as long as they are in a qualified census tract area.

Think of the funding as more of a reimbursement. It will come after the initial purchase is made. One thing worth keeping in mind — the funding may take a while to reach your finance department. David Worthington, Santa Clara County, California, fleet manager, recommends making the purchase with enough money in the budget to cover the cost in case the 45W credit is not approved. Some advice from Worthington:

1. Read the entire incentive program documentation including all the fine print to determine if you are eligible to receive the incentive.
2. Determine how much administrative and reporting compliance workload will be necessary.
3. Determine if your organization has the administrative workload capacity to successfully apply for, process, and administer captured incentives and meet reporting requirements that may be as long as five years into the future.
4. Most incentives do not include funding for the administrative workload to meet the program requirements.
5. Determine the budget cost of purchase of vehicles, charging stations, hydrogen fuel stations, etc. without being dependent on incentives to be able to move forward with the procurement process.
6. Determine the cash flow requirements and if your organization can wait for funds or reimbursements that may take up to several years.
7. Move forward with an application if the above 5 steps have been completed and the fleet organization can support the administrative workload, initial funding requirements, manage cash flow challenges, and successfully meet the program requirements terms.

Curtis recommends working with your local Clean Cities Coalition to find grant and other funding opportunities. While many companies have grant writers who can put their time into this process, government fleets oftentimes do not. This is why relying on resources like Clean Cities can be invaluable.

Getting Buy-In From Stakeholders

Once you’ve determined how much you are eligible to receive in grants and other funding assistance, bring this to the stakeholders and let them know about the cost savings associated with EVs that will help justify the purchase of the EVSE.

“A lot of times, people are driven by money. Show them that electrification is going to save any department, any county, or any business money on their bottom line with electric vehicles, where you can actually do bi-directional charging and put money back to the grid to offset your building charges,” Curtis said. “There’s just so many different things you can do to show that the total cost of ownership [is lower].”

In 2022, the Cobb County government released a video featuring Curtis explaining the benefits of EVs on the fleet, how to charge them, and dispelling EV myths. You can watch it below.

Curtis recommends using the U.S. Department of Energy’s Vehicle Cost Calculator, which allows you to put in the specific vehicle make and model and gives an estimate on the total cost of ownership and emissions output over a two-year period of time. Compare data between an ICE vehicle and its EV counterpart.

Bottom line, Curtis believes adopting EVs will become more attractive both to stakeholders and fleet managers over time as more fleets adopt the technology and costs come down.