Indianapolis stepping back on EVs on many fronts

[craze1cars]

Just FYI, it hasn't been all puppies and roses for EVs here in the Midwest. There has been lots of EV stuff in the news here in Indianapolis lately...and not positive. Give the city credit they gave it the old college try and for all the right reasons, but it just ain't been working out on many levels...

At one time under our previous REPUBLICAN Mayor, our future city vehicle purchases were contracted all to be EVs or PHEVs or hybrids whenever possible, depending on the applications needed. They bought a bunch and put them into use...mostly hybrids I've seen quite a few Chebby Volts, and some Priuses, etc. This is not new news, but about 1.5 years ago the city has indeed gone back to buying gasmobiles...largely due to political issues and the policies of our new DEMOCRAT mayor. Howsabout that for a little odd that the Republican mayor started the clean(er) fleet initiative, and later the Democrat mayor unplugged it. Just proves you can assume nothing about party affiliation...vote the candidate! I do not know a ton of "why" details:
https://www.ibj.com/articles/67605-city-ending-contract-for-electric-vehicle-fleet

BlueIndy EV car sharing program ran for 4 years, and is being cancelled permanently in 2 months, because it is simply not economically viable due to low usage and lack of consumer interest. It just bleeds cash and can't stop:
https://www.indystar.com/story/news...ic-car-sharing-program-shuts-down/4259749002/

We have a bunch of new all-electric buses in our transportation fleet that hit the streets last summer under promise of a given electric range, and now these buses have been suffering crippling and insurmountable range loss issues during cold weather...they just can't finish their routes each day during winter! They've been messing with boost chargers along the route which haven't worked out well either, etc, and it just has been kinda suckin'. So future EV bus orders have now been cancelled, and replaced with new Diesel bus orders:
https://www.indystar.com/story/news...-buses-cancels-electric-bus-order/4903343002/

 

[gooki]

BYD have ****ed up the EV bus industry by not being clear on how EV range is impacted by weather.

Sorry they have chosen to go diesel. At the very least I'd expect natural gas to beat diesel.

 

[FloridaSun]

Just FYI, it hasn't been all puppies and roses for EVs here in the Midwest. There has been lots of EV stuff in the news here in Indianapolis lately...and not positive. Give the city credit they gave it the old college try and for all the right reasons, but it just ain't been working out on many levels...

At one time under our previous REPUBLICAN Mayor, our future city vehicle purchases were contracted all to be EVs or PHEVs or hybrids whenever possible, depending on the applications needed. They bought a bunch and put them into use...mostly hybrids I've seen quite a few Chebby Volts, and some Priuses, etc. This is not new news, but about 1.5 years ago the city has indeed gone back to buying gasmobiles...largely due to political issues and the policies of our new DEMOCRAT mayor. Howsabout that for a little odd that the Republican mayor started the clean(er) fleet initiative, and later the Democrat mayor unplugged it. Just proves you can assume nothing about party affiliation...vote the candidate! I do not know a ton of "why" details:
https://www.ibj.com/articles/67605-city-ending-contract-for-electric-vehicle-fleet

BlueIndy EV car sharing program ran for 4 years, and is being cancelled permanently in 2 months, because it is simply not economically viable due to low usage and lack of consumer interest. It just bleeds cash and can't stop:
https://www.indystar.com/story/news...ic-car-sharing-program-shuts-down/4259749002/

We have a bunch of new all-electric buses in our transportation fleet that hit the streets last summer under promise of a given electric range, and now these buses have been suffering crippling and insurmountable range loss issues during cold weather...they just can't finish their routes each day during winter! They've been messing with boost chargers along the route which haven't worked out well either, etc, and it just has been kinda suckin'. So future EV bus orders have now been cancelled, and replaced with new Diesel bus orders:
https://www.indystar.com/story/news...-buses-cancels-electric-bus-order/4903343002/

Political affiliation really means nothing when it comes to EV's.. The most EV friendly towns around here are run by Republicans. The small city of Largo has tons of free chargers including a free 50kw Level 3 charger.. My town (Lakeland) has city sponsored free or low cost Level 2 chargers and they also have Electric cars. Both cities are run by Republicans.. All the EV owners at my company are either Libertarians or Republicans.. Political affiliation really means really nothing when it comes to the topic of EV's.. I personally think that both big parties in the US are corrupt to the core and their policies are based on who finances their campaigns. At the local level, this is different. The moment that there isn't a lot of outside money poured into local elections, you often get people elected that actually work for the people and not their donors.

 

[interestedinEV]

At one time under our previous REPUBLICAN Mayor, our future city vehicle purchases were contracted all to be EVs or PHEVs or hybrids whenever possible, depending on the applications needed. They bought a bunch and put them into use.........

I looked around trying to find out why a Democratic Mayor would be against it and it appears that there are allegations that it did not meet the needs and that there was a lot of irregularity in the contract, leading to wastage and cost overruns. Not sure if the allegations are true, but if true, are pretty serious.

Again, not living in that area, it is quite possible it is pure politics but they way it appears to me is that there is some substance in the accusations and some politics. It looks like it shades of grey, so I would be hesitant to apply party labels without some sort of caveats.