The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) received a donation of 41 EcoCentre neighborhood electric vehicles (NEVs) and electric motorcycles to add to its fleet. The donation came from the Ray Fladeboe Trust and is valued at more than $400,000.

The donation consists of 38 NEVs and three electric motorcycles, which may include IT, Facilities, and UCLA Police. The vehicles will be used to replace existing campus vehicles, which include vehicles from GEM, Columbia, and Miles EV, Tim Pfrimmer, fleet manager, told Government Fleet. UCLA has about 250 electric vehicles in its fleet.

"They'll move into our internal service network," Pfrimmer said. "We have a lot of people contacting us and letting us know [they want it]. We’re going to try to spread them across the campus."

UCLA received the largest amount of vehicles, 41 of 66 available. Pfimmer believes this was because the university had some experience with donations and had experienced people and the logistics already figured out. The trust wanted the vehicles off the lot within two weeks, so he believes this helped the university get the largest donation.

All the vehicles have been delivered. Fleet staff is in the process of determining the condition of the 2012 and 2013 model-year vehicles. The vehicles have not been driven, but some may need batteries or other changes before they can be put to use, Pfrimmer said. He expects the first vehicles to be put into service in about a week. The fleet's goal is to get all the vehicles in service by the end of September.

Ray Fladeboe, who died in 2010, was founder of the Fladeboe Automotive Group.

By Thi Dao