author: Claire

Four west coast cities - Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle and Portland, recently formed a collaboration to ask automakers for a record-breaking order of 24,000 electric vehicles.

According to EENews, the four cities joined a Request for Information (RFI) from car manufacturers, which is the first step towards a formal bidding process. RFI asked automakers about the details of EVs they can make, including price, production time and models.

This step is a decisive one, showing that at least four representative cities in the United States are determined to cut gasoline emissions and improve environmental quality.

"Every community has the power to fight climate change, and we do not need to wait for any one person or government to show us the way," Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said in a statement. "By acting together as cities, we can set an example for our neighbors, spur clean energy innovation, clean our air, and accelerate the inevitable transition to a low-carbon, opportunity-rich future for everyone."

Another purpose for the action is to lower operating and maintenance costs. LA officials also hope that more variety of EV models could be provided by automakers to add to the municipality fleet, such as SUVs, small trucks, delivery vans, trash trucks and transit buses. The city has leased 288 electric vehicles and is planning to make 80% of their municipal fleet electric by 2025.

Also in action is New York, which recently announced the purchase of 80 Chevrolet Bolt EVs. Portland last month adopted an updated "Electric Vehicle Strategy" aiming to increase the city's EV fleet by adding 60 EVs. King County's Metro Transit which includes Seattle's metro area, confirmed that it will add 120 new electric buses in the next three years.

It's the first time that cities of different states gathered together. Mayors of the four west coast metros are all members of the Mayors National Climate Action Agenda (MNCAA). The other 51 cities in the alliance were also invited to participate in the RFI. If there are additional demands from other cities, they will be added as an appendix to the RFI in February and automakers need to respond by March 1st.

"The hope is that by next month there could be additional cities in the request that hopefully brings the demand for EVs to 50,000 or perhaps even 100,000," said Matt Petersen, chief sustainability officer for Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti.

Currently, there are only two types of EV models available to ship with a reasonable price to meet municipal government's budgets — Nissan Leaf and Chevrolet Bolt EV. Although both parties haven't committed to the number of production units this year, it is promising that EV production on a general scale in the US will be on the rise.