The City of Sioux Falls has authorized the purchase of a single 2023 Nissan Leaf to serve as the pilot car for the city’s future EV fleet.
City sustainability coordinator Holly Meier said Sioux Falls is considering its formal sustainability plan.
“One of the areas that we’re looking at in the plan is involving transportation and how we can support cleaner transportation that is also sustainable," Meier said. "An electric vehicle is one of those pathways for that.”
Meier said there are still questions about practicality.
“Our plan is to really do some learning in the next year or so to really understand what the benefits are, what the challenges are for the community, what are the true costs and benefits of this technology including maintenance and repair costs,” Meier said.
According to the city, the decision to move forward with an EV pilot came after months of research and speaking to other cities in Minnesota, Missouri, and Iowa about their use of EVs within municipal fleets.
Meier said it’s a forward-looking decision.
“We’ve seen in some of the projections and studies and research that electric vehicles are likely here to stay," Meier said. "Knowing this emerging transportation is coming into our community, possibly more so, one of the things we want to be doing is thinking about that. Making sure we’re leading by example.”
Charging the vehicle will be done at a city facility.