New York City is buying 80 all-electric Chevy Bolt EVs at a good discount for a shared fleet initiative

While the Chevy Bolt EV is currently only available in California and Oregon, it will soon make its way to the east coast thanks to a deal between GM and the city of New York. The de Blasio administration is ordering 50 all-electric Chevy Bolt with the first ones set to arrive in the spring and the order is expected to go up to 80 vehicles by the end of the fiscal year.

After a discount from GM and federal incentives, the city of New York is getting the vehicles at a very attractive price.

Crain’s New York Business has the breakdown of the price the city is getting instead of the $37,500 MSRP:

“The city is paying General Motors $32,997 per vehicle, but will get a federal rebate of $8,287 per car, making its actual cost $24,710, according to an Administrative Services spokeswoman. That’s comparable to the $23,067 it pays for a Prius through a contract with Toyota. The city says the Bolt will cost less to operate and maintain than a Prius does.”

The city is taking advantage of a federal program to clean government vehicle fleets. Regardless of the program, it looks like GM is willing to discount the Bolt EV for large purchases, in a ZEV state at least, so maybe it would be worth looking into for fleet managers.

Last year, NYC set a goal to add 2,000 electric cars in its fleet and they are currently at 500.

Mayor Bill de Blasio commented during the announcement:

“As part of our OneNYC plan we are implementing 2,000 electric cars and reducing emissions in our City fleet. We reached over 500 EVs after just one year and the GM Bolt will now play a pivotal role as we make a push for 1,000 by the end of 2017.”

The vehicles will be used in a new shared fleet initiative to be managed by the Department of Citywide Administrative Services (DCAS) and made available to multiple city agencies.

The city also plans to install at least 25 new electric vehicle charging stations to accommodate its new electric vehicle fleet.

New York now claims the biggest EV fleet of any city in the US, but Los Angeles is ramping up its effort and is now getting closer with around 300 electric vehicles being used across all its departments, including a few Tesla Model S sedans used by the LAPD.