'This is the future:' County announces downtown EV charging stations for its fleet

Mile by mile, Bernalillo County is making strides in its efforts to electrify its vehicles.

The county assessor’s office is helping drive this initiative through a new agreement with the Public Service Company of New Mexico that will put in place at least three electric vehicle charging stations in the PNM parking structure Downtown.

The stations will be accessible for government-owned vehicles to charge up at, including the three EVs the assessor’s office currently has.

County Assessor Damian Lara said at a news conference on Wednesday his office wants to obtain more EVs in the future, transitioning its fleet away from gas cars.

“But before we can do that, we need to make sure that we’ve got the groundwork and the infrastructure,” Lara said.

The initiative aligns with Bernalillo County’s efforts to fully electrify its fleet, and, more generally, the state’s push for zero-emission vehicles.

When exactly the Downtown charging stations will be running is still unclear.

County Commissioner Eric Olivas also attended the news conference. He said he’ll keep working with Lara on the EV initiative, and he encouraged the public to push public officials to move quickly on electrification and addressing climate change.

“I’ve made it clear that the county must electrify its fleet, electrify its buildings. This is the future,” Olivas said. “We have to move that way quickly and justly because it will not only save our planet, but it’ll save our taxpayers money.”

He said it costs around $42 a week to fill up a gas-powered vehicle in Albuquerque. Charging up an EV for that same mileage is $13, he said.

“So this transition to an electric vehicle fleet is not only environmentally friendly, but it’s cost effective for taxpayers and for our citizens,” he said.

He said the Bernalillo County Commission has made appropriations and changed the county procurement code to require the purchase of EVs when possible.

“And of course, the follow up to that is making sure that we have charging infrastructure,” Olivas said. “And I believe through partnerships like this with PNM, we’re going to be able to do that and lead the state.”

Elias Archuleta is the deputy county manager for public works. He said Bernalillo County doesn’t have an estimated cost for replacing its entire fleet because the county replaces cars as they run over 150,000 miles, or earlier in some cases.

Lara said he’s decommissioned eight gas vehicles that had over 150,000 miles since taking office a year ago. He said his office plans to replace all eight of those cars in the next two to five years.

Archuleta said the county spends about half a million dollars a year replacing general fleet vehicles, which is anything other than public safety, heavy equipment or maintenance cars. Moving forward, the county will continue focusing on aging out older cars, he said, which are typically putting out more emissions.

He said these future Downtown chargers will help reduce the county’s carbon footprint and meet its green initiatives.

“A key goal of Bernalillo County at Alvarado square is to create a sustainable, environmentally friendly facility,” he said. “Assessor Damian Lara is taking that vision beyond the doors of our building by beginning to switch his fleet to electric vehicles.”

Olivas agreed this will help battle climate change, something he said materializes in unique ways in New Mexico, like through wildfires or aridification.

“I think we have a responsibility here at Bernalillo County locally to tackle climate change through initiatives like the purchase of the assessor’s electric vehicles and working with PNM on electric vehicle charging infrastructure,” he said.

John Williamson is the transportation electrification program manager for PNM. He said this project is a great example of how PNM looks to support the energy needs of its New Mexico partners.

“Our expectation is that this work will enable and empower our partners at the county to charge their vehicles, those that they have today and the ones that they expect to have in the future,” he said.

He also said PNM offers rebates for business and residential customers to set up EV chargers. More information on that can be found at pnm.com/ev.