Fairfax City Charges Into 2021!

Press release from the City of Fairfax:

01/15/2021 9:47 AM

Pictured in the photo from left to right: Chris Bruno, director, Economic Development Office; Trinh Scott, program manager, EDO; Councilmember Janice Miller; Councilmember Sang Yi; Mayor David Meyer; Councilmember Joe Harmon; Councilmember Tom Ross; Christina Alexander, manager, Transportation Capital Projects; Wendy Sanford, director, Transportation Division; Alice Lippert, vice chair, Environmental Sustainability Committee; and Stephanie Kupka, coordinator, Sustainability.

City of Fairfax officials gathered at City Hall on Wednesday, January 13, 2021, to celebrate the installation of four new electric vehicle charging stations at City Hall and Old Town Hall. Each location includes two Level 2 chargers, which are perfect for “topping off” an electric battery while one is out and about.

Residents can now boost their electric vehicle’s battery while conducting business at City Hall or while parked next to Old Town Hall. Dedicated parking places next to the charging stations are reserved for electric vehicles.

Electric vehicles have lower fuel costs and lower maintenance costs due to fewer moving parts and no internal combustion engine. “This is a lead by example project,” said City of Fairfax Mayor David Meyer. “By the end of this decade, electric vehicles are not going to be a novelty, they are going to be what people buy to replace conventional automobiles.”

The electric vehicle wave is coming, and the City of Fairfax is proud to be at the forefront. General Motors, Volkswagen, Audi, Ford, Chevrolet and others are all transitioning to electric vehicles. Just this week, General Motors released its new logo as part of a new electric transition campaign. GM is investing $27 billion in electric and autonomous vehicle products and is launching 30 new electric vehicles globally by the end of 2025.

EV Stats

• Electric vehicle registration in Virginia increased 157 percent between 2017 and 2019.
• Annual growth in electric vehicle ownership is about 39 percent.
• There were 614 public electric vehicle charging stations in Virginia in 2019, up from 274 five years ago.

This technology is at a tipping point, and the city’s charging stations are just the beginning of what will be a massive infrastructure transition. The charging stations are part of a larger push by the city toward innovation, sustainability, and technology.

The City of Fairfax committed to reduce city-wide greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions 80 percent from 2005 baseline levels by 2050. “I think we will be able to exceed that and do it earlier,” said Meyer.

In 2018, transportation and mobile sources accounted for 40 percent of the city’s GHG emissions. “The Washington metropolitan area really doesn’t have any heavy industrial manufacturing. All of the air quality problems that we have in the greater Washington area, the vast majority, comes from automobiles,” said Meyer, citing Metropolitan Council of Governments research.

The city is promoting the use of electric vehicles, when driving is necessary, to reduce GHG emissions and improve local air quality. “I do believe 20 years from now, when we convert to electric vehicles, we’ll see a demonstrable increase in air quality improvement, even though we’ll have a population increase,” said Meyer.

The $35,000 investment in the city’s sustainable future was paid for with Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality funding, federal dollars dedicated to transportation projects that improve air quality.

“The new generation of people who will inherit all of this, our children and grandchildren, are going be living in a completely different world. They’re going to look back on photographs and videos of people in gasoline-powered cars and it will seem like a distant memory,” said Meyer.

This press release was produced by the City of Fairfax. The views expressed here are the author’s own.