King County Metro Vanpool to add 120 more electric vehicles
King County Metro is taking another step toward a more sustainable future by adding 120 electric vehicles to our vanpool fleet.
The new seven-passenger vehicles will join our nearly two dozen electric compact vanpool cars already on the road. Following this procurement, almost 10 percent of Metro’s vanpool fleet will be electric.
What is a vanpool?
Vanpooling is similar to carpooling. Commuters share the driving and have a common schedule and route to work. With a Metro Vanpool, all costs are included in one low monthly fare. This includes the van, fuel, insurance, maintenance, roadside assistance, tolls and even an emergency ride home if you need to leave work early.
Metro boasts one of the largest public vanpool programs in the country. Every workday, almost 1,000 Metro vanpools hit the roads of King County, keeping thousands of single-car trips off our congested roads.
Metro Vanpool’s newest electric vehicle
Our procurement process concluded that the Tesla Model Y is the only currently available, seven-passenger electric vehicle that meets county electrification requirements and federal rideshare vehicle specs for FTA grants. As such, the first procurement will be for the Tesla Model Y. Metro will be exploring and considering all available EV options for future vehicle purchase.
This procurement and the broader vanpool fleet conversion align with the King County Council’s ordinance to electrify Metro’s rideshare fleet by 2030.
The purchase price of the Model Y is about the same as gasoline-powered minivans. The vehicle also fits within Metro’s cost-recovery vanpool fare model and meets King County electrification, federal grant, and employer transportation benefit eligibility requirements.
Safety features include lane assistance and collision avoidance assistance. Auto-pilot features will not be activated for vanpool vehicles.
Charging and range
This all-wheel-drive subcompact crossover SUV has an expected range of 330 miles when fully charged.
The average home’s 110-volt service can support up to 75 miles a day. About 90 percent of Metro’s current Vanpool round trip mileage is 75 or fewer daily miles.
The Model Y also has access to Tesla’s supercharger network, adding quick-charge capability.
The vanpool of the future
Metro is creating the vanpool of the future. This will include attracting new commuters into the program, modernizing and electrifying our fleet, and partnering with communities—especially in lower-income neighborhoods—to expand the availability of charging infrastructure.
Metro also works with employers seeking to expand their employee transit benefits to cover vanpool commutes.
Learn more at kingcounty.gov/metro/vanpool
I must agree with other commenters. While electrification of the fleet is a good thing overall, why Tesla? This statement in the article seems to not be true: “The new vehicle being procured is the Tesla Model Y, which is the only seven-passenger, fully-electric vehicle that exists.” Even if that was true at one time, it should have been well-known even then that other options would soon be coming to market, and that should be a reason to hold off on the purchase. Not go forward with it. Someone needs to explain how this decision got made.
This is a terrible use of public funds. I’m an EV advocate but somehow KC Metro paid over MSRP for 120 Model Ys when they could almost certainly have bought 200+ Chevy Equinox EVs for that cost.
Wow, so who do we vote out of office for this decision. First this is clearly a political decision, Tesla is Musk and Musk is now a political force so this is a purchase is supporting Musks political goals. Secondly remember Hertz?? Their purchase of a Tesla fleet was a disaster, how will King County do any better. How much more money will be lost paying for outrageous insurance and repair costs. What a disgrace.
Yay King county