Abstract:

The public sector owns and manages a considerable number of vehicles and equipment. Public sectors fleet managers have the difficult task of making decisions between conflicting goals such as using efficiently the taxpayers’ money and “greening” their fleets. The paper investigates whether it makes economic sense to use electric vehicles (EVs) in the public sector fleet. The authors compare the overall cost of ownership of a battery electric vehicle to that of a comparable internal combustion engine vehicle using data collected in 2018 in 77 public sector organizations in an Italian city, Friuli Venezia Giulia. This study provide estimates for four scenarios (status quo, social cost internalization, price discounts and a combination of the last two) for three groups of public entities (local health authorities, municipalities and special purpose authorities) regarding passenger cars and mixed-use small light commercial vehicles. The authors conclude that, given current price and cost structures, it is economically viable to implement electric vehicles for a limited but significant portion of the public sector fleet.