OLDS — Council has come to an electrifying — or rather non-electrifying — conclusion: now is not the time for the town to buy an electric half-ton pickup.
During a budget discussion on Dec. 13, Coun. Heather Ryan was the first of several councillors to voice opposition to that proposed purchase.
She noted the price for that vehicle had risen to $70,000.
Ryan said electric vehicles are still “quite experimental” at this stage and that electric trucks aren’t expected to be rolled out until at least next spring.
Concern was expressed that there are not yet enough charging stations in town for electric vehicles. Ryan also pointed out that a charging station grant program is expected to come out later.
“I think that we should just park this half-ton, take it off the list,” Ryan said. “It’s an electric vehicle. I don’t think we’re quite ready for it and certainly the technology out there is not quite ready for it either.”
Ryan said the municipality needs to be more efficient when it comes to obtaining and using vehicles in its fleet anyway.
She noted that Scott Grieco, the town’s new director of operations, plans to undertake an examination of the municipality’s vehicle fleet to find efficiencies and present a report on those findings to council later.
“We have parks trucks that sit there in the wintertime. They’re not utilized as heavily as operations would use their vehicles and I think there could be a rotation of vehicles,” Ryan said.
“Also, I think we need to look possible leasing of vehicles. There’s buy-backs and things like that that we could use to replenish our inventory.”
Ryan said now is a good time for the town to sell any surplus or older vehicles it may have because demand for used vehicles is very strong.
“I’m sure you’re going to get a good amount of money for them because I see them on Buy and Sell (online market places) and they’re selling for a good price,” she said.
Coun. James Cummings agreed that now is not the best time to buy an electric pickup truck. But he added that doesn’t mean the municipality couldn’t experiment with other electric vehicles like cars or SUVs.
Cummings said it appears the town will inevitably end up buying all kinds of electric vehicles.
He said several other provinces have already mandated the use of electrical vehicles and the reduction of diesel and gas-powered vehicles and he’s sure Alberta will eventually do so as well.
“I'm not opposed to the purchase of electrical vehicles and the start of that process now," Cummings said. “Down the road 10 years or so, all of our vehicles should be replaced with electric vehicles.”
Coun. Darren Wilson said while he supports “green initiatives” he too doesn’t think this is the right time to buy an electric pickup truck.
He also would prefer to wait until Grieco presents his audit of the fleet to council before determining the future of the town’s vehicle fleet.
Coun. Dan Daley and Mayor Judy Dahl echoed all of those comments as well.
"I just feel that we should just — as Coun. Ryan says — park this idea until we get more information and the industry actually builds more technology, not only in the vehicle, but also in the charging system,” Daley said.
