University of California, Irvine
OP-15: Campus Fleet

In the past year, UCI Transportation created Electrify UCI, a fleet electrification plan designed to help the university meet its future carbon neutrality goals. In the initial phase, the university has divested itself of most of its gasoline powered golf carts and all future cart purchases must be electric. All new vehicle purchase requests are submitted to the Sustainable Transportation department to ensure the new acquisition is a clean vehicle (preferably electric) for approval if it meets clean vehicle standards. The campus shuttle buses are currently being replaced with a fully-electric fleet of transit buses, and the retired buses are being scrapped instead of sold to ensure the diesel emissions are not passed on to another entity. These clean buses will provide more than 2 million student rides per year.

Along with "electrifying" the fleet vehicles, UCI's Pump2Plug is one of the first university incentive programs that encourages staff and students to convert from fossil fuel vehicles to electric and plug-in vehicles by offering 3 years of free Level 1 charging and reduced-cost Level 2 charging on campus. Since its inception, over 300 UCI staff and students have leased or purchased a qualifying vehicle.

45% of UCI fleet vehicles are powered by alternative fuels or utilize hybrid technology. This includes all diesel buses in the UCI shuttle bus fleet (29 buses operating on B20 biodiesel), 31 hybrid-electric vehicles (including plug-in hybrids), 170 pure electric vehicles and carts, 1 hydrogen fuel cell passenger vehicle, 1 hydrogen fuel cell bus, and 7 compressed natural gas (CNG) or propane vehicles. UCI's propane vehicle count was added to its CNG count as their tailpipe emission rates are most similar.

This summer, UCI's student-operated shuttle system, the Anteater Express, will replace its bio-diesel transit bus fleet with a fleet of pure-electric transit buses.

In 2013 UCI established the Fleet Conversion Working Group (FCWG), which includes sustainability, transportation, shuttle, and fleet operations staff to develop a business plan for conversion of the remaining UCI fleet vehicles to low carbon fuel systems. Supported through FCWG’s planning efforts, the UCI shuttle fleet is preparing for complete replacement of UCI’s campus fleet to electric, hybrid, CNG, or other low-carbon fuel types.

Expanding EV services through Pump2Plug is but one example of UCI’s vision for the future of transportation and electrification. UCI is also pioneering research to convert renewable energy to hydrogen for fuel cell electric vehicles or storage in the natural gas system, and leading smart-grid and micro-grid developments in the Irvine Smart Grid Demonstration as well as the UCI Micro-grid Controller development projects, both cutting-edge research partnerships with Southern California Edison and the U.S. Department of Energy.