Nissan Leafs Bring $110,000 In Annual Savings To Houston City Government
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Originally published on EV Obsession.
We’ve written about it many times: electric cars are much, much cheaper to run. Based on the average price of electricity in the US, gas at $3.50/gallon, and the average miles driven per year, the Nissan Leaf costs $473.98/year to fuel while the Nissan Rogue costs $1,965.25/year to fuel. Furthermore, there are big maintenance savings — no oil changes, no busted tubes or valves, no transmission problems, etc.
If you’re a person who drives a lot, those fuel savings from driving electric can add up fast. If you’ve got a fleet of quite active vehicles, you’ll be seeing even bigger numbers. Houston is now testament to this. The Texan city has 27 Nissan Leafs in its government fleet. It estimates that these super-efficient electric cars will save the local government about $110,000 a year.
“Houston first began using electric vehicles for the environmental benefits they offer, but now we are planning to add even more EVs to our fleet because of the cost savings they bring,” said Laura Spanjian, director of sustainability for the City of Houston. “We project that electric vehicles will save the city $110,000 per year in reduced fuel and maintenance, costs that we would otherwise have to spend on gas-powered vehicles. Also, our new car sharing program FleetShare, which we developed with ZipCar, provides easy access to the vehicles for Houston’s employees.”
Along with Houston, the city of Loveland, Colorado also just announced huge savings from switching fleet gasmobiles over to electric vehicles (again, Leafs). It didn’t provide a total savings estimate, but it noted that the Leafs cost 41% to operate (for fuel & maintenance).
“Loveland needed to do something about rising fuel costs, and electric vehicles have proven to be a great solution, saving us about 41 percent overall compared to gas-powered vehicles,” Loveland Mayor Cecil Gutierre said. “In tough economic times, these savings cannot be ignored. Loveland is now aiming to convert all of its light-duty fleet vehicles that work within a close distance of the city to EVs.”
Image Credit: City of Houston
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