ComEd is going electric with more of its own fleet vehicles to help electrify the transportation sector, which accounts for one-third of all U.S. greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and advance the adoption of electric vehicle (EV) technology in Illinois.
ComEd’s current fleet of 3,000 vehicles includes 1,400 biodiesel-fueled line trucks and another 430 units that are capable of running on high-level ethanol-gasoline blends, or E85. More than 200 of its vehicles have electric hybrid or plug-in hybrid electric systems and another 10 are all-electric vehicles. ComEd plans to electrify 30 percent of its fleet by 2025. This will eliminate 2,000 metric tons of GHG emissions, in addition to the 4,000 metric tons that the ComEd fleet already avoids annually. The company’s goal of electrifying 50 percent of its fleet by 2030 has the potential to eliminate an additional 29,000 metric tons of GHG emissions.
“We’re all learning more about the link between air pollution and higher mortality rates from COVID-19 and the disproportionate impact on communities of color,” said ComEd CEO Joe Dominguez. “Cleaning up the transportation sector is key to improving the lives of our citizens. Greening our own fleet is one way we can help create cleaner air in our communities. A crucial next step is preparing the grid to support increased electrification of our large customer’s vehicle fleets and the widespread adoption of personal EVs.”
ComEd will replace end-of-life internal combustion vehicles with plug-in hybrid and fully electric vehicles, reducing fuel and maintenance costs and creating savings that will be passed on to customers. By 2025, all of the company’s light duty vehicles (LDVs) approaching the end of their life cycle will be replaced with electric vehicles, and all LDVs will be electrified by 2030.
There are now 21,885 EVs registered in Illinois, up from fewer than 8,000 registered EVs in 2017, according to the Secretary of State’s office. In addition to environmental benefits, key factors driving the growing popularity of EVs include lower operating costs compared to gas-powered cars. ComEd has recently introduced an EV Toolkit that provides information on savings, benefits and incentives for the purchase of electric vehicles, along with an overview of EV brands and models, rate options, EV chargers and a public charging station locator by zip code. ComEd.com/EV.
ComEd is a unit of Chicago-based Exelon Corporation (NASDAQ: EXC), a Fortune 100 energy company with approximately 10 million electricity and natural gas customers – the largest number of customers in the U.S. ComEd powers the lives of more than 4 million customers across northern Illinois, or 70 percent of the state’s population.
(Source: Businesswire)
