New York City-owned electric vehicles are now more than its goal, which it initially set to be targeted by around 2025.

Before three years ahead of its target timeline, NYC now has an impressive fleet of city-owned zero-emission cars, which replaced some of its fuel-powered vehicles.

(Photo : Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
NEW YORK, NY - APRIL 18: Rich Steinberg, BMW North America's Manager for Electric Vehicle Operations and Strategy, demonstrates how to charge the BMW ActiveE fully electric vehicle into a charging unit during the unveiling the ActiveE on April 18, 2011 in New York City.

New York City-Owned EVs Are Now More Than 4,000

As per the latest news by Electrek, the city-owned EVs of NYC have already surpassed the 4,000 mark.

As early as 2015, NYC was already gearing up to lower its greenhouse gas emissions. In fact, Electrek says in its report that New York City started plans to replace some of its gas-powered vehicles in favor of EVs during that year.

The Clean Fleet Plan essentially seeks to cut down the greenhouse gas emissions of the fleet of NYC by a whopping 50% based on their emissions in 2005. And the target timeline to go about this ambitious goal is by 2025.

Since then, city-owned vehicles have started to include various all-electric and hybrid cars. Electrek notes that it includes Nissan Leaf, Ford Mustang Mach-E, and Chevy Bolt.

Hundreds of Chevy Bolt EVs are now being used as administration vehicles, whereas more than 200 Ford Mustang Mach-E vehicles are police patrol cars. But besides these automobiles, NYC has also electrified some garbage trucks and school buses.

And as such, three years before the target year, the city-owned EVs are now roughly 4,050.

Gas-Powered Cars Replacement Goal

Given that NYC has reached its goal early on, it has already expanded its target number of EVs.

NYC now increased its target by 2025 to 4,000 more EVs, which means it would account for around 8,000 by that year.

NYC is looking to add more EVs to its fleet, which includes electric street sweepers and electric garbage trucks.

Not to mention that the citywide services also plan to include more electric pickups and trucks. And what's more, the NYC Department of Corrections is set to replace all its buses with electric-powered ones.

Read Also: New York Passes Bill That Will Provide Up to 50% Off on E-Bike and E-Scooter Sales

New York City and EVs

While the EV fleet of NYC is rapidly increasing, owning an electric car in the city still faces some problems.

(Photo : Sean Gallup/Getty Images)
A Volkswagen employee demonstrates the charging of a Volkswagen ID.3 electric car outside the "Gläserne Manufaktur" ("Glass Manufactory") production facility on June 08, 2021 in Dresden, Germany. 

According to Fox News New York, the senior director of e-mobility at the New York Power Authority, John Markowitz, says that owning an EV in NYC is still pretty challenging.

He notes that finding a place to charge is still the problem. But Markowitz adds that looking for charging stations is getting easier year by year.

Meanwhile, the Assistant Commissioner of Policy from the NYC Department of Transportation says they plan to install a thousand curbside stations by 2025.

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Written by Teejay Boris