The National Park Service

Learn about the benefits of switching to electric vehicles and how the National Parks Service is implementing them into its fleet and installing the necessary charging infrastructure.

Fleet electrification usually occurs over the course of four segments of activity. This is what federal fleet managers will have to think about in terms of actually electrifying their fleet.

Is my fleet suitable for the inclusion of electric vehicles?
How can I procure the necessary vehicles?
What adjustments will I have to make in my building and parking arrangements, and how will I site, procure and install electric vehicle supply equipment (EVSE) for fleet use?
Finally, how will I manage my fleet EVs and EVSE?

History of Electric Vehicles

The first electric car appeared in the United States in 1890, a vehicle capable of transporting six passengers up to 14 miles per hour. Today, there are more than 50 models of plug-in electric or hybrid electric vehicles available to consumers. According to the Department of Energy, if we were able to replace all light duty vehicles in the United States with light duty electric vehicles using the currently available technology, we could decrease dependence on foreign oil by 30-60 percent and lower carbon pollution from transportation by 20 percent.

Interest in electric vehicles in the United States first took off in early 1900s for the purpose of making short-distance trips by urban residents. However, the electric vehicle’s popularity was short lived as a result of the invention and mass production of the Model T. By the 1920s the United States had developed roads capable of supporting long-distance trips, the price of oil had fallen and electric vehicles started disappearing. It was not until the passage of the 1990 Clean Air Act and the 1992 Energy Policy Act did interest in electric vehicles begin to rejuvenate. Shortly thereafter, the Toyota Prius became the world’s first mass produced hybrid electric vehicle. Hybrid electric vehicles, or HEVs, are vehicles with an electric drive system and battery, but are still powered by gasoline.

The acceleration in production of electric vehicles was further energized by the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act, which invested over $2 billion in advanced battery and electric drive component manufacturing with the goal of cutting battery costs in half by 2013. Outside of the Recovery Act, the Department of Energy’s Advanced Technology Vehicle Loan Program loaned money to Tesla Motors, Nissan and Fisker for EV projects. These investments sought to increase U.S. manufacturing capability in the near future to support the production of at least 500,000 plug-in hybrid electric vehicles by 2013.

In 2010, Chevy Volt entered the market, the first commercial plug-in hybrid vehicle. Plug-in hybrid vehicles, or PHEVs, are vehicles that may be plugged into an electrical outlet and can be powered by energy from either electricity or fuel. The Nissan Leaf followed along with Tesla’s Model S, which became available in 2012; both are battery electric vehicles, or BEVs, which derive all their power from a battery.

In 2011 the GSA launched the first pilot program aimed at electrifying the United States’ federal fleet. With over 600,000 vehicles, the government’s fleet is the largest operating fleet in the nation. The initial pilot program included 116 EVs and installed charging stations across 20 different federal agencies. Its success has since spurred the acquisition of more EVs by the GSA. Today half of the GSA’s 210,000 leased vehicles are alternative fuel vehicles, though electric vehicles make up only a small fraction of these.

In 2012 President Obama announced the EV Everywhere Grand Challenge. EV Everywhere is an initiative to enable PEVs that are as affordable and convenient for the American family as gasoline-powered vehicles by 2022. To meet the challenge’s goals, the DOE developed the EV Everywhere Blueprint to provide specific targets for EV deployment over the following five years. The blueprint contains specific R&D strategies, including cutting battery costs from their current level of $500/kWh to $125/kWh, eliminating almost 30% of vehicle weight through lightweighting, and reducing the cost of electric drive systems from $30/kW to $8/kW. R&D is the lynchpin of the Obama administration’s plan to deploy electric vehicles nationwide because cost reduction and performance improvements are the biggest drivers for a robust electric vehicle market and wide consumer acceptance. Transportation electrification is supported by a variety of DOE components including The Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Vehicle Technologies Office, the Clean Cities program, the Office of Science, and ARPA-E. These offices all help to develop and fund new technologies and work to remove institutional barriers for the market transition towards PEVs.

In an effort to increase the number of charging stations deployed in the U.S. and put more electric vehicles on the road, in 2016, the Energy Department unlocked up to $4.5 billion in loan guarantees to support innovative electric vehicle charging facilities, and the Department of Transportation launched a process to identify zero emission and alternative fuel corridors, including for electric vehicle charging across the country. These actions and others from the Federal government will work in conjunction to achieve an ambitious set of Guiding Principles to Promote Electric Vehicles and Charging Infrastructure, which was endorsed in 2016 by nearly 50 vehicles manufacturers, electric utilities, electric vehicle charging companies, states, and organizations. In 2016 the White House also issued a call for state, county, and municipal governments to partner with the federal government to procure electric vehicle fleets at a discounted price.

Current State of the Technology and Prospects for the Future

Today’s electric vehicles vary in configuration according to the evolution of battery technology and charging accessibility. Familiar HEVs, such as the Toyota Prius, rely on an internal combustion engine as well as a battery that supplies the car’s motor with electrical energy, which is converted to mechanical energy in order to supplement power for some driving functions traditionally powered by gasoline. Seeking to build on this early success, research efforts today have shifted focus to pure electric vehicles, or BEVs, and the development of larger batteries that will power a vehicle over long ranges at high speeds without the need for gasoline. BEVs eliminated the internal combustion engine in favor of an electric motor, making them simpler and more cost efficient to produce. The question is how to determine the best mix in the tradeoff between power and energy, the characteristics of a battery that determine how fast the car can go and the duration of its charge.

The prevailing battery technology used in commercially available PHEVs is the lithium-ion battery, which is superior in both power density and energy density to its predecessor, the nickel-metal hydride battery. Lithium has been used in everything from phones to laptops because it is the lightest metal resource, which for EVs reduces the size and weight of the battery and increases a car’s weight-to-performance ratio. Additionally, lithium-ion batteries are not affected by “memory,” meaning that the battery does not have to be fully discharged in order to maintain a long life, giving them the added advantage of being maintenance free. The Chevy Volt and Nissan Leaf both use lithium-ion batteries, while hybrids continue to have nickel-metal hydride batteries. This is largely due to costs; lithium-ion batteries are more expensive and some automakers have been hesitant to make the switch. Yet one of the biggest challenges faced by the use of lithium-ion batteries is battery life. The expected life of automotive lithium-ion batteries is not certain, but previously used lithium batteries in technology products had an average life of only 10 years. Automotive lithium-ion batteries are primarily burdened by cycling and temperature factors. Cycling is the process of discharging and recharging the battery; driver charging habits, such as deep cycling and overcharging, can severely reduce the efficiency and life of a battery. High battery temperatures will also produce negative lifespan effects for the battery; research is currently underway to develop a cooling mechanism that will keep the batteries from reaching degrading temperatures during operation.

Beyond these challenges, higher upfront costs for EV’s, and the need for further technology development, fleet managers may also suffer from a lack of charging infrastructure and employee hesitation in adapting to new technology. Yet, all of these challenges can be tackled by pushing for widespread adoption of EVs and incorporating EVs into our nation's largest fleets. Policy support and innovative business models are the key to offsetting costs; thus, the Electrification Coalition recommends bundling vehicle and charging station purchases as a way of reducing overall project costs. However, the greatest opportunity for cost reduction will be found in manufacturing scale. For this reason, Ford executives in 2009 called for standardization of battery types and battery production in the United States is expected to increase, reducing battery costs in the near future. In the meantime, the advantages of adopting EVs can be accrued by a fleet manager if employing the best practices available.

Benefits of Electric Vehicles

Fleet operators benefit from electrification by lowering the total cost of vehicle ownership, according to the Electrification Coalition. Such cost factors are typically the most important metric for fleet owners. In particular, the lower maintenance and service costs of PEVs will represent a substantial cost savings for high-mileage fleets. Managers can take a number of additional measures to lower their costs. Predictable routes and driving patterns allow for minimal investment in public charging infrastructure as well as right-sized batteries. Use of a central parking facility allows some fleet operators to minimize investment in public charging and benefit from economies of scale in installation. Furthermore, lower maintenance and service costs of PEVs will produce cost savings for high-mileage fleets and access to commercial and industrial electricity rates increase savings from charging over purchasing gasoline. For example, charging vehicles during off-peak hours costs up to 60 percent less than peak electricity hours.

Challenges of Using Electric Vehicles

In August 2008, President Obama set a goal of putting 1 million electric vehicles on the road by 2015. In fact, only about 475,000 vehicles had been sold as of summer 2016 due to low gasoline prices which make conventional vehicles more cost effective, according to Fortune. Overall, there are 250 million cars and trucks on the road.

As these statistics suggest, there are many challenges to incorporating electric cars into larger fleets. But these challenges are not insurmountable. One of the biggest obstacles for fleet managers is the higher up-front costs of electric vehicles, which tend to be more expensive than similar conventional vehicles. In addition to higher costs, money for vehicle acquisition and maintenance can come from different budgets. Fleet managers will have to plan how best to ensure that they have a proper mix of 120 volt charging stations for low use vehicles and those that can be charged overnight. More powerful charging stations that provide quicker charges can be installed for high use vehicles. In other cases, employees may be able to charge vehicles at their homes overnight or in public facilities on the road. In any case, managers will have to pay attention to integrating charging infrastructure with the existing stressed infrastructure.

Managers can determine their baseline fleet costs and EV compatibility as a way of helping to justify increased up-front acquisition costs that will ultimately be offset by lower operational costs. In these calculations, the total cost of ownership is the key metric. The city of Loveland, CO estimates that, if its Nissan Leafs are “driven over 6,000 miles per year, the total costs of owning and operating the LEAFs will result in a 41-percent reduction in cost,” according to the Electrification Coalition.

Pulling together the right team to run the fleet is also crucial to success. Key to a smooth launch of the new electric vehicles is training for the drivers and maintenance personnel who will handle the new technology. The drivers should be confident in operating the new vehicles and the maintenance teams should learn how to diagnose and repair any problems.

Also important is data collection to evaluate the performance of the fleet. Managers should use the latest technology to track vehicle inventory and operations. Telematics, information transmitted from the vehicle back to a central computer, can provide a wealth of management information, though the flow of data can be overwhelming in some circumstances.

Another challenge is getting people to adopt the new technology. Frequently managers offering new products encounter general internal resistance. Providing a good experience for drivers helps overcome these issues.

National Park Service

The National Park Service (NPS) was created by an Act of Congress named the Organic Act and signed by President Woodrow Wilson on August 25, 1916. As a Federal Bureau within the Department of Interior, the NPS was originally responsible for the protection of 35 parks and monuments; today’s NPS oversees more than 400 national parks and employs 20,000 people. NPS operates on the most extreme terrain in the country and hosted more than 307 million visitors in 2015. Under the Organic Act, the stated mission of NPS is “to conserve the scenery and the natural and historic objects and the wildlife therein and to provide for the enjoyment of the same in such manner and by such means as will leave them unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations," which implies being an advocate for sustainability, addressing the environmental challenges of park management, and setting an example for the rest of the nation.

One of the most important environmental challenges NPS faces is the question of how to reduce the anthropogenic carbon footprint in parks. Today NPS has become aware of the impact that visitors, NPS staff, and concessioners driving personal and fleet vehicles have on the park environment; 85 percent of the average park’s greenhouse gas emissions come from transportation to, from, and within the park. To address these impacts, NPS teamed with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) in 2010 to establish the Clean Cities National Parks Initiative (CCNPI). This collaboration is specifically aimed at bringing together the resources of the Clean Cities program and the NPS to reduce emissions in the parks by decreasing fuel consumption, increasing the use of alternative fuels and technologies and raising awareness among staff, partners, and visitors.

NPS Progress in Fleet Electrification

By the summer of 2016, NPS had procured 62 charging stations and 85 alternative fueled vehicles, 70 of which are EVs, across 32 park fleets. The majority of progress at NPS has stemmed from the Clean Cities and DOE coalition and their joint effort to identify the best options to incorporate alternative fuel vehicles into the NPS fleet, according to Andrew Hudgins, project leader at DOE’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). “Every park I have spoken to is interested in EVs,” Hudgins reports, however NREL is responsible for foreseeing the challenges parks may face and carefully selecting projects with a high probability for success. This task is difficult because NPS is a unique agency in that it must carefully consider the specific needs of the diverse portfolio landscapes it manages.

NPS fleet managers have many issues to consider in acquiring electric vehicles. Project leaders and fleet managers must be conscious of the needs of park employees in terms of vehicle-use; for example, it is essential in rural and rugged areas with severe weather for drivers to have vehicles with ranges sufficient for navigating unpredictable routes. Identifying the daily routes and usage of current vehicles is the essential first step in determining which of these vehicles can be replaced with an EV. Typically, vehicles that travel about 75 miles a day or less are good candidates for replacement with EVs.

Even when fleet managers know what they want, obtaining the right vehicle is not always easy. E-ride industries, an EV manufacturer from which NPS procures utility vehicles, has made headway in developing all-electric utility-type vehicles. However, the absence of the best available technology from the GSA procurement schedule has set fleet managers back in looking to right-size and electrify their fleets, according to Hudgins. The process that equipment manufacturers must go through to place their products on the schedule is lengthy and smaller companies often do not have the bandwidth or experience to navigate the difficulties that the largest companies can overcome. Moving forward, there is significant opportunity to create a better suite of options available to federal fleet managers by making it easier for smaller companies to distribute the unique technologies they have to offer through the GSA schedule.

In addition to acquiring vehicles, fleet managers at NPS are in charge of making the necessary adjustments to park infrastructure in order to support fleet electrification. NREL encourages robust level one or two charging stations because many federal employees are unfamiliar with electric vehicles and may be anxious about range or functionality. Fleet managers should consider driver behavior, especially initial sensitivity about having low batteries while driving, in their analysis of fleet transition. A good place to start would be the procurement of proper charging infrastructure with meters to gauge how much electricity a vehicle is consuming, how it is being used, and what kinds of savings are accruing as a result. Ensuring such an accurate assessment requires forbidding charging from electrical outlets on sites that have not been metered. Unlike the vehicles themselves, procurement of charging stations is a fairly easy process. There are a variety of options for charging stations available on the GSA schedule, the majority of which are level two stations. The procurement process for charging stations can be as short as two weeks, whereas the estimated process time for any vehicle is typically six months to one year.

As a first-mover in fleet electrification, NPS has had to overcome a variety of management issues. In response, it has developed innovative tools which are now available for fleet managers elsewhere to replicate. First of all, NPS managers have employed a simple “drive around with drivers” approach to ensure a successful project launch. Managers need to be able to teach drivers how to operate the vehicle, how to charge it, and where it's most appropriate application is found. For example, a park superintendent may be given the new vehicle as a function of status. However, experience may demonstrate that the superintendent does not drive as much as a park ranger who has duties to attend to over a greater extent of the park’s territory. Internal politics or hierarchy of leaderships should not prevail over any practical assessment of the vehicle’s best-fit use. In this case, the ranger may be able to maximize the value of the EV because he or she more fully employs its capacity.

Second, in order to reach an audience greater than the circle surrounding fleet managers, NREL developed a Green Your Rides Toolkit, containing educational materials critical for park service staff and the general public. NPS can now say it has a consistent message at every park on the best practices essential to sustainable fleet operations. Many of the items found on the toolkit website, such as the tip card and idle reduction decal and poster, have contributed to an estimated 10-12 percent reductions in greenhouse gas emissions from driver behavior, including idle reduction, carpooling, and right-sizing the vehicle. Moreover, these efforts have raised awareness and produced an agency-wide effort towards building a smarter, greener fleet; according to an NPS driver behavior survey, drivers are overwhelmingly interested in alternative fuel and electric vehicles.

The NPS considers its implementation of electric vehicles a success. With the right mix of technology, government support, local utilities, and park visitors, NPS is convinced the Executive Order and its own mission to offer Green Parks can be achieved.

Zion National Park

The Zion National Park in Utah has benefitted from the NPS and Clean Cities partnership by receiving funding through CCNPI that, combined with other resources, made it possible to acquire four new PHEVs, install 12 electric vehicle charging stations and generate educational material for the public, including signage to encourage drivers to reduce time spent idling. Acquiring the funding for PHEVs is just the latest example of how the park has led the way in energy-saving technologies; Zion’s fleet of 155 vehicles includes 42 alternative fuel vehicles and Zion began using propane shuttle buses in its fleet in 2000.

The mentality of engagement with the electric vehicles that pervades Zion from each maintenance worker to the superintendent explains its success in fleet innovation rather than the availability of better technology or more resources, according to Hudgins. Zion employees have all bought into the message that “we can do better for the environment and health,” which is why fleet electrification has become a park-wide effort. A comprehensive, sustained and holistic approach like that of Zion’s is essential for any organization wishing to green its fleet.

Beyond greening their own fleet, Zion managers have worked to make charging stations available to park visitors. Zion received funding to install charging stations (EVSE) that are open to the public, but installation and provision was delayed while the park created a solution to meet NPS’ Washington Support Office guidance that guests had to pay a fee to charge their cars in the park. To solve this problem, the Zion group developed a partnership with the Zion Natural History Association to have a park store sell vouchers with activation codes for the on-site chargers. All fees are allocated to a utility account that directly pays for the electricity bill of the EVSE.

After only 12 months, the Zion Group’s PHEVs have already saved more than 500 gallons of petroleum and 5.5 tons of GHG emissions, while making EVSE available to the public allows the NPS to expand the reach of its protection and conservation efforts beyond its own operations. Zion remains a leader within the NPS in the promotion and adoption of alternative fuel vehicles. In the near future, the park plans to increase the number of electric drive vehicles in its fleet and looks forward to sharing its experiences with other parks in the state. “If the park service can do it with their unique terrain and management structure, anyone can,” Hudgins declares.

Zion National Park's alternative fuel vehicle fleet (NPS Photo).