Federal Green Car Purchases ‘Down a Third’

Purchases of hybrid and electric vehicles by President Barack Obama’s administration fell by a third last year, according to Bloomberg.

The administration has a goal of only buying alternative fuel vehicles for its fleet by 2015, but 2012, in which it purchased 1,801 alternative fuel vehicles, was the third year in a row in which green car purchases fell, the news service reports.

Green car purchases by the General Services Administration, the federal government’s fleet and building management agency, fell 32 percent to 3.2 percent of total vehicles bought for federal agencies in 2012, Bloomberg reports.

Last year the hybrid version of the Hyundai Sonata pushed the Ford Fusion hybrid from its place as the federal fleet’s top alt-fuel vehicle. Over the year, the GSA bought 904 Sonata hybrids, 372 Fusion hybrids and 163 Chevy Volts.

In 2010, the GSA doubled the federal hybrid fleet without increasing the total number of vehicles. At the time, the GSA said the resulting improvement in fleet fuel efficiency would reduce petroleum consumption by the equivalent of an estimated 7.7 million gallons of gasoline, or 385,000 barrels of oil.

In May 2011, the federal government announced plans for a totally green fleet by 2015. At that time the GSA announced the purchase of 100 Chevrolet, Nissan and Think City vehicles as part of an Electric Vehicle Pilot program. The 100 vehicles were placed into service with 20 agencies located in Washington, D.C., Detroit, Los Angeles, San Diego and San Francisco.

The goal of a 100 percent green federal fleet is part of the administration’s plan to put a million alternative fuel vehicles on US roads by 2015, and cut oil imports by one third by 2025.

But current forecasts are “well short” of 1 million vehicles by 2015, according to Bloomberg.