Mayor Eric Garcetti announces electric auto leasing plan

Mayor Eric Garcetti announced at a press conference today that, with the new lease of more than 250 electric and hybrid cars, Los Angeles now has the largest city-owned fleet of pure battery electric vehicles in America-he city has added 160 battery electric vehicles and 128 plug-in hybrids to it’s fleet.

The new cars are part of Mayor Garcetti’s Sustainable City pLAn (stifle that groan), which calls for half of all smaller city vehicles to be fully electric by 2017, with a goal of having an 80% electric fleet in a decade.

“The decision by the Los Angeles Police Department to undertake this evaluation highlights the compelling nature of the BMW i3 as a versatile, sustainable vehicle”, says Christine Fleischer, manager for BMW plug-in cars in the US “The i3 is a brilliant fit with the technology-driven research philosophy of the LAPD”. “Now we’re fulfilling that promise ahead of schedule”.

Tesla will be loaning its Model S P85D, which retails at about $120,000, for three months, while the BMWi will be loaned to department for 12 months, LAPD Police Administrator Vartan Yegiyan told. The “technical experts” at the LADWP have got to be LIVID at this snub!

The cars were on display at Los Angeles Police Department headquarters Friday, and will again be shown at an electric vehicle showcase organized by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power at Exposition Park on Sunday.

“LA could once again the lead the way to help transform not just our department, but other departments and cities around the country”.

Mayor Garcetti believes there will come a time soon when all of the police vehicles in the city will no longer be powered by gasoline. “Proud to be an Angeleno”.