June 11, 2002

The City of Vancouver today unveiled two environmentally friendly additions to its fleet of vehicles.

The “Think City” and the “Ranger EV” are fully electric, zero emission vehicles that are being leased from the Ford Motor Company. It’s part of a two-year trial to see how electric vehicles can be integrated into the City’s existing, conventionally-powered fleet.

The “Think City” is a dramatically designed two-seater that uses nickel cadmium batteries for power, and can travel up to 60 km per charge, at speeds up to 90 km/h. It’s built of recyclable plastics and materials.

The “Ranger EV” looks like, and is built much like, a conventional pickup truck, except that it’s powered by lead acid batteries. It can travel up to 70km on a single charge, with a top speed of over 100 km/h (exact speed and range vary depending on the road conditions and the remaining battery charge).

Both vehicles take about eight hours to recharge, using an EVI 200 series charging station, which has become the industry standard.

“Alternative sources of power is just one of the ways we’re looking at reducing emissions and enhancing air quality here at the City,” says Dave Rudberg, General Manager of Engineering Services. “We have more than 1,700 licensed vehicles. If this trial proves successful, we could be expanding the number of electric vehicles in our fleet.”

Media enquiries:
Dave Rudberg
General Manager, Engineering Services
604-873-7300

(c) 2002 City of Vancouver