UNC Charlotte
Summary
Over the past few years, Facilities Management at UNC Charlotte has developed and implemented an ambitious strategy to have a cleaner and greener fleet. The best example of this can be found in the 106 electric vehicles (EVs) that are currently running on the campus. These electric vehicles have replaced many gasoline cart and similar type vehicles all over the campus. In addition, the University also uses E85 and E10 in its fleet. For all its efforts to reduce its consumption of petroleum, UNCC received the 2008 Clean Cities award from the Centralina Clean Fuels Coalition.
12/1/2011 - Click here to view NC Solar Center's newsletter article on UNC Charlotte's fleet "Speaking from Experience: Building a Fleet of Low-speed Electric Vehicles"
Project Details
Many of UNC Charlotte's electric vehicles are neighborhood electric vehicles/low speed vehicles (NEV/LSVs) that perform a variety of functions on campus, including: grounds keeping, maintenance, parking services ticketing and parking lot management, student services, housekeeping and construction. The campus fleet currently totals 106 electric vehicles. These vehicles include Global Electric Motorcar (GEM), Club Car IQ electronics, Par Car, Cushman and EZGOs.
The vehicles are charged at plug in stations and a "park it and plug it" policy helps to keep all the EVs at or near full service. UNC Charlotte projects an annual savings of 6,800 gallons of gasoline per year from its electric vehicle use. This is a sizable amount given an average purchase price of $9,500. By incorporating NEVs and EVs into their fleet, UNC Charlotte has been able to lower operating costs, but more importantly is the elimination of air and noise pollution from these vehicles and UNC Charlotte's willingness to set a leading example to other fleets.
UNC Charlotte owns 19 flex fuel vehicles that fuel with E85 from a pump located on campus. The pump is also used by 10 motorfleet vehicles for an estimated total of 6,600 gallons of E85 per year. The rest of the University's gasoline fleet fuels with E10.
By the Numbers
Vehicles: 106 electric vehicles; 19 flex fuel vehicles
Fuel Type: Electricity and ethanol
Annual Petroleum Displacement: Over 12,000 gallons
Contact Information
Larry Lane
Facilities Management
lblane@uncc.edu
If you have a success story you would like to submit please contact Emily Parker at (eparker@centralina.org)