Thursday, March 18, 2021

New Electric Vehicle “How To” Kit for Towns

DVRPC (Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission, the MPO for greater Philadelphia) has just published a new “Electric Vehicle Resource Kit for Municipalities” which should become a valuable resource for local elected officials and community activists seeking to promote EV usage.

Although the toolkit (available here) is specifically designed for the New Jersey and Pennsylvania towns that the commission serves, it contains lots of useful information that will be helpful to anyone working at the local level.

Topics covered include how to incorporate EVs into a municipal fleet, where to look for federal and state grants, and how to locate EV chargers.  I especially like the practical advice, such as: “It is important to think carefully about which vehicle in your municipal fleet to replace with your first PEV. If the first vehicle is a success, the path to the second, third, and more will be much easier. You want to do what you can to assure that the first PEV will score high marks with municipal staff, be highly visible to your residents, and make good financial sense to the town council.”

Having been involved in a few of these efforts over the years myself, I give high marks to Rob Graff and company at DVRPC for producing a nifty EV toolkit that is user-friendly, updatable, and implementation-oriented.