Power company launches EV lease program

Employees at Southern Company will have a choice of electric vehicles to lease — the electric Ford Ranger truck or GM EV1 sports car

An electric company announced Wednesday that it will lease 400 electric vehicles to its employees at an affordable price over the next four years as part of an effort to clean the air and promote their use.

"We have two goals for this program. We want to help create the mass market for automakers to produce electric vehicles nationally and help clean the air by removing the tail pipe emissions of hundreds of cars from roadways," said Southern Company Chairman, President and CEO A.W. Dahlberg.

Southern Company is an Atlanta, Ga., based electric power company with $35 billion in assets through regional utilities and operations around the world.

This program will bring the number of electric vehicles in Southern Company's fleet to almost 600 by the year 2003.

Electric vehicles are popular with some in the environmental community because they help improve air quality by greatly reducing the amounts of nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds, while lowering carbon dioxide emissions.

Each electric vehicle reduces greenhouse gas emissions by 35 percent compared to conventional vehicles, said Secretary of Energy Bill Richardson.

Under the Southern Company Employee Electric Vehicle Lease Program, at least 100 vehicles will be leased each year for four years, bringing 400 additional electric vehicles into the company's fleet. The number of vehicles may increase based on employee demand.

"We applaud Southern Company for being a leader with corporate fleets giving their employees access to a cleaner means of transportation and for continuing the partnership in the federal fleet program," said Richardson.

Southern Company's current electric vehicle fleet stands at 190, including 50 Chevy S-10s, 32 Ford Rangers, 73 Toyota RAV4s and 27 GM EV1s. More than 130 additional electric vehicles are on order for this year.

Employees at Southern Company and its largest subsidiary, Georgia Power, will have a choice of electric vehicles to lease -- the electric Ford Ranger truck or GM EV1 sports car. The Ford Ranger will be leased for $150 a month and the GM EV1 will lease for $200 per month, and payments will be automatically deducted from employees' paychecks.

Southern Company is leasing the vehicles from auto manufacturers at a cost of about $550 per month and splitting the cost with its employees.

Copyright 1999, Environmental News Network, All Rights Reserved

Note: Pages will open in a new browser window

External sites are not endorsed by CNN Interactive.