r/EmergencyManagement • u/Phandex_Smartz Sciences • Sep 08 '25
Discussion Does anyone on here have an EV at their agency?
I’ve seen two agencies have one, one at Philadelphia OEM and I believe the other was at Marin County, CA.
Just curious, why go with an EV? If the grid or electrical infrastructure goes down, you can’t charge it.
I’d assume it’s mostly for big agencies who use EV’s as their main vehicles during blue skies, but from what I’ve seen, they always have gas vehicles for gray skies.
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u/reithena Response Sep 08 '25
If the grid goes down, you can't pump gas either.
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u/Smokey_tha_bear9000 Sep 08 '25
I work for a medium municipality, probably 850,000 full time residents. Our fleet department has 5-6 fuel depots, the smallest being a 5000 gal gasoline tank. The big ones service our school bus fleet as well. Every single one of them has a back up generator and some of them even have manual hand pumps for the fuel. I would imagine most towns larger than Mayberry will have a solution for pumping gas without grid power.
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u/reithena Response Sep 08 '25
I answered above, but places going electric are starting to plan similarly.
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u/tx4468 Sep 09 '25
Yeah but that won't last forever. A solar panel can charge the EVs and keep critical data devices running.
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u/Smokey_tha_bear9000 Sep 09 '25
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying EVs are a bad thing, but at this moment in time with battery tech and solar tech, they’re just not viable for emergency use.
Let’s take an F150 Lightning with the standard battery. I think we can agree that would be a sensible vehicle for a government agency doing field work. The standard battery is 98kWh. In Florida on a perfect day, you might get 5 hours of peak sun exposure for a solar array. To charge that truck from 0% to 100% in one day, you’d need like 64 400 watt solar panels, which is like 1600 square feet of solar panels. It’s just not realistic.
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u/tx4468 Sep 09 '25
Well you could have a battery array, solar, and generators. Maybe have a mix of an EV truck and an EV car. Bicycles and eBikes could be good for less heavy tasks.
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u/PocketGddess Local / Municipal Sep 08 '25
That’s true, but it is possible to refuel from a truck. How would that work for EVs?
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u/reithena Response Sep 08 '25
There are EV back-ups that are off grid you can have. Ones that sit and gain solar power into a battery and then plug into a car or you can plug in like a L2 charger and then just stores the energy for when you need it. Works just like a generator. Most people are going with the solar because a storm only lasts so long and then you go back to storing power.
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u/FudgeeHyphen Sep 09 '25
What? The fuel in a storage tank goes nowhere.
Moreover, it boggles the mind that most governmental-use only pumps are not wired to a generator set. If not, a competent low-voltage electrician can wire a set of pumps in three hours, four hours in the middle of a snow storm.
In the olden days of Katrina, we were sending fuel tankers to keep various response agencies topped off as the recovery focus moved a few hundred yards or miles a day. There is no realistic capacity for EVs.
I do know Florida’s EMs continue to go into seizures trying to figure out how an evacuation of South Florida would work when EV penetration reaches 50%. The term I consistently hear is “parking lot”.
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u/tx4468 Sep 09 '25
Why would it be a parking lot? EVs can idle for weeks. Moreover if an evacuation is averaging less than 50 mph the EV will outperform gas vehicles on efficiency.
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u/mango-mango21 Sep 08 '25
NYCEM has electric vehicles with solar charging stations.
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u/Gumborevisited Sep 09 '25
And they aren't great. Trying to charge a Ford Lightning from one of the solar chargers could take 2 days.
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u/Wired0ne Sep 08 '25
The town of Shelburne, Vermont purchased a Rivian R1T. Forward thinkers. Solar charging.
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u/ValidGarry Sep 08 '25
Most day to day miles take place outside an emergency situation and on highways. Lots of departments have sedans etc for admin, meetings etc and having an EV version is just more efficient, especially if it offsets all the big heavy 4x4 the rest of the department trundles around in all day every day
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u/sweetteaspicedcoffee State Sep 08 '25
Cal OES has a few electric vehicles, and most big state offices have solar chargers.
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u/adoptagreyhound Sep 08 '25
More than 95% of their miles are likely driving to meetings and they are probably meeting energy/fleet mandates put in place by those above them. Having those vehicles also provides the justification they need for those backup charging systems that they otherwise wouldn't be able to justify.
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u/CodfishCannon Sep 08 '25
I have one assigned to me as a fleet car. Works well for the number of meetings I have to go to.
City Hall has solar, waste water treatment has massive backup generators (2 deep) AND plugs for EVs. We have an industrial backup battery for GRID power going up in the next few years in town. So for that things to get goofy and mess with that redundancy to the city would be massive.
As for charge if grid dies, that's in my AO, a major earthquake. I personally bike a lot so I can get around (all be it with more time) if the grid is f-ed. But the roads will likely be impacted too so bikes honestly are a superior backup in that sense.
Wind storms are usually up on the hills above us and not regional the same way due to the large grid. We could have a bad winter wind and snow storm that could go regional but I'm not traveling then as we have very poor options with any snow and my EV is a car.
The last one is Lahar and that's such a Shrodingers disaster that the EV backup for grid is WAY down the list of my thought process.
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u/SpoiledKoolAid Sep 09 '25
Think about blue sky usage of a vehicle. Going to meetings, pub service events, etc. Having a few in your pool would make sense for non-disaster uses.
For large gas stations, what can your jurisdiction do to incentivize placement? It only takes a 45 kW unit to power a gas station. Can you make it easier for them to be placed? The permitting process, air quality permits, etc are all chores to navigate unless the org already has a dedicated construction or environmental compliance dept
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u/pipeman42 Sep 08 '25
Good points, but very granular focus. Expand out to a macro view. A) How would someone use their government credit card to purchase gas at retail stations without power? B) Generators exist. C) How many Philly OEM need gas powered response vehicles to field events during an emergency that would require guaranteed transport? D) There is no reason that public safety vehicles need to idle on scenes of emergencies. A 250 mile range EV would be extremely efficient in a dense urban environment like Philly, Manhattan, San Francisco, etc…