In celebration of National Drive Electric Week, Edison Electric Institute (EEI), a Washington, D.C.-based association representing investor-owned utilities, announced a nationwide push to increase the number of electric vehicles in utility fleets. The association projects that one-third of all vehicles and two-thirds of light-duty vehicles in utility fleets will be electric by 2030.

National Drive Electric Week, Sept. 26 to Oct. 4, is an annual nationwide effort to raise awareness of the many benefits of EVs. EEI, a sponsor of the annual event, said the fleet electrification goals demonstrate an expansion of the initiative the association launched a few years ago encouraging member utilities to commit to spending at least 5% of their annual fleet acquisition budgets on EVs.

Southern California Edison’s parent company, Edison International, is among the 70% of EEI member companies representing 200 million U.S. customers leading the effort to electrify utility vehicle fleets. SCE recently announced its 2030 goal of electrifying 100% of light-duty passenger vehicles, 30% of medium-duty vehicles and pickup trucks, 8% of heavy-duty trucks and 60% of forklifts.

“As an industry, it is critical that we lead by example, and our collective commitments to electrify our fleets both show our customers the path to clean transportation and sends a clear message to the automakers that our industry — and many others — are committed to an electric vehicle future,” said Pedro Pizarro, Edison International president and CEO and co-chair of EEI’s CEO task force on electric transportation.

Edison International laid out the 2030 goals for electrification of SCE’s fleet of more than 6,200 vehicles in its recently published 2019 Sustainability Report. The utility has already installed more than 370 charge ports at its facilities to meet the demands of its growing electric fleet and expects it will need about 1,300 more to achieve its 2030 goals.

More EVs in SCE’s fleet means cleaner air for customers in its service area, as well as a reduction in harmful greenhouse gas emissions for the planet. The company projects that its efforts will save more than 620,000 gallons of fuel annually and eliminate close to 6,000 metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions a year, or the same amount that would be saved by taking 7,600 cars off the road for a year or planting and growing nearly 600,000 trees for 10 years.

Last year, SCE spent 12% of its fleet acquisition spend on plug-in vehicles and 13% of its overall fleet incorporated plug-in electric technology. As it replaces gas- and diesel-fueled cars and trucks, SCE is actively moving forward on testing a wide range of EVs.

SCE plans on testing an electric pickup truck with an expected range of 250 miles per charge. The company is also in discussions with three big-rig manufacturers to begin tests of their electric models to see if they can replace the utility’s diesel semitrucks.

The announcement of fleet electrification goals are in line with the state’s direction on climate, given that Gov. Newsom last week issued an executive order requiring sales of all new passenger vehicles to be zero emission by 2035, as well as additional measures to eliminate harmful emissions from the transportation sector.

Learn more about how EEI’s member companies are leading by example at: eei.org/evs​.