Asheville – Scarcity of resources for creating green communities is proving to be a bottleneck. A couple weeks ago, the Buncombe County Commissioners heard that it would not be fiscally feasible for Waste Pro to haul recycling every week because new trucks not only cost too much, they are not available. The theme was echoed at the commissioners’ November 26 budget worksession. While regulators were working to make diesel vehicles a thing of the past, the materials and labor required to manufacture electric vehicles made green vehicles more costly, even before the semiconductor chip shortage. The shortage, beginning in early 2021, has since led to the closure of several plants.
Consumer Reports surveys indicated demand for electric vehicles increased by 350% between 2020 and 2022. This translated to a waiting list of one vehicle per 45 consumers ready to buy. As soon as semiconductor chip supplies are adequate to meet demand, manufacturing the vehicles and working through existing wait lists is expected to take another eight to twelve years. Currently, electric vehicle sales have done better in jurisdictions like California, where the problem is being attacked politically. As long as the chip shortage persists, though, these regions are benefiting at the expense of the rest of the world.
Government incentives to make electric vehicle production lucrative for traditional automotive manufacturers, which it currently is not, could help, but, as Chair Brownie Newman pointed out, the world has a shortage of infrastructure for green vehicles. He likened the county, with its current number of charging stations, to a town with only two gas stations. People would not want to drive fuel-powered cars because the lines were too long, he said.
In an update on vehicle procurement, Jackie Hamstead, representing the county’s Sustainability Office, said budgeted fleet expenses go beyond the purchase price of vehicles and include costs of fuel, maintenance and parts, payroll, and parking facilities. The county owns 560 vehicles: 302 are operated by the sheriff’s office, and 19 are ambulances. The average age of county vehicles is 7.3 years.
Hamstead said that, in alignment with commissioners’ priorities, the goal in fleet procurement is to transition to low-emission vehicles, and doing so will require adequate infrastructure. To date, 82% of the county’s fleet remains diesel-fueled, and only 1% runs on electricity. The county has six electric vehicles on order, which would bring its total to 11, but, Hamstead cautioned, the county had had more electric vehicle orders canceled than filled.
Hamstead said when the county needed to buy a vehicle, it did not have the luxury of waiting a couple years until an electric or hybrid model became available. She estimated the county will be buying about 80 vehicles a year at an expense of about $5.75 million. This is just for scheduled turnover and does not include the replacement of wrecked vehicles or fleet expansions. She added that the rate of inflation in the automotive industry is outpacing the general rate. That is, over the last four to five years, automotive prices have increased by 32%, and that has translated to the average price of vehicles purchased by the county increasing by $11,000.
Back to infrastructure for charging vehicles, Hamstead said the county had 32 chargers in 10 locations. The plan was to add small charging stations throughout the county for sheriff’s patrol vehicles and major charging stations in the College Street and Coxe Avenue parking garages. The College Street parking deck would get 28 chargers installed for $425,000, and the Coxe Avenue deck would get 18 for $421,000. These stations would be primarily for the county’s electric fleet, so as not to overrun chargers available to the public.
Hamstead said if the county acted quickly, it could take advantage of incentives. For example, because the decks are in Qualified Census Tracts, the county could receive about $100,000 in tax credits for each. Duke is also offering one-time incentives, but she did not hazard a wager at their value.
Newman said the county needed “an abundance of accessible electric vehicle charging stations,” but added that the role of local governments in accommodating this was unclear. That said, a modest investment from the county could accelerate buildout toward a tipping point.
Budget Director John Hudson then interjected that the county’s parking garages don’t “have enough electrical load to push the chargers.” That is, the chargers use a lot of electricity, and the garages were wired to only run electric lights. Moreover, the College Street garage would have to be able to charge anywhere between zero and 28 vehicles at once without dimming the lights or causing grayouts elsewhere.