The City of Covington is looking to build out the number of EVs in its fleet.
Leaders will vote to purchase 10 new EVs for various city departments, specifically the police, fire and public works departments, next week.
Although the proposals were incidental to rises in gas prices, for Covington Mayor Ron Washington and some of the city commissioners, the move was timely.
“It’s a good thing that we’re purchasing these EVs, looking at the price of gas,” Washington said at the Covington Board of Commissioners meeting Tuesday, before making a joke about Commissioner Tim Acri’s vehicle taking premium gas.
Acri promptly corrected him that it, in fact, took diesel.
“What is diesel running?” Washington asked.
“$5.79 a gallon,” Acri said.
“$5.79 a gallon,” Washington repeated for effect.
Little discussion on the matter took place beyond this.
The meeting fell on the same day as Gov. Andy Beshear signed an emergency order enacting a freeze on the state’s gas tax and moved to enact other price control measures in the face of rising fuel prices.
The average price of a gallon of gas in Kentucky is currently $4.28, up from $2.85 a year ago, according to the governor’s office. Beshear also enacted a 10-cent reduction in the gas tax, signed an order to freeze the motor vehicle assessment rate at the start of next year, which will prevent motor vehicle taxes from increasing in 2027, and encouraged Congress to suspend the federal gas tax.
All of the vehicle purchases were placed on the consent agenda for next week’s meeting, meaning they will likely be approved. Upfitting for the police and fire department vehicles was also placed on next week’s consent agenda.
Here is specific information on each vehicle type:
Vehicle Quantity Department Total base cost Total up-fitting cost Tesla Model Y 4 Police $177,624 $49,184.12 Chevrolet Silverado EV 1 Police $54,365 $10,607.54 Chevrolet Equinox EV 2 Code Enforcement $50,682 n/a Chevrolet Silverado EV 3 Fire $163,095 $31,822.62
The move follows the recent approval of the purchase of 15 electric and hybrid vehicles for Covington’s fleet. The city’s manager of analytics and intelligence, Todd Sink, presented an analysis earlier this year, which suggested that incorporating EVs and hybrids into the city’s 213-vehicle fleet could reduce maintenance and fuel costs.
Sink’s analysis was based on an eight-year vehicle life cycle and estimated the city would save $122,408 over the course of eight years if it bought EVs instead of gas vehicles for the 12 vehicles slated for replacement last year.
“In a hypothetical scenario, if the city had replaced the 12 vehicles with comparable electric alternatives, we [estimated] that the city could have saved about $23,000 alone on fuel maintenance costs in 2025,” Sink said in February.
Erin Rosas of LEX 18 contributed reporting to this story.