The South Portland City Council on Tuesday approved an order to spend nearly $15,000 to lease three new electric vehicles (EVs) for use by the city’s Code Enforcement, Assessor’s Office, and Facilities Department.
The city issued Requests for Proposals (RFP) in December soliciting competitive bids from vendors to replace expired lease agreements of the vehicles currently held by the three municipal departments, with the stipulation that the vehicles must be 100 percent electric and new or in new condition.
After receiving no responses to the RFP, the city’s purchasing agent reached out to area dealers for quotes, securing three-year leases on a 2024 Nissan Leaf for $9,000 to be used by Code Enforcement, and two 2024 Hyundai Ionics for $2,943 and $2,711 respectively to be used by the Assessor’s Office and Facilities Dept., for a total amount of $14,654.
[RELATED: Maine BEP Rejects Controversial EV Mandate…]
According to Matt Fitzgerald, South Portland’s purchasing agent, the prices on the two Hyundai Ionics are lower due to additional grant funding from Efficiency Maine, a quasi-state agency overseen by the Maine Public Utilities Commission that provides tax credits and other incentives for purchasing EVs.
Efficiency Maine can only provide funding for a maximum of two EVs per municipality per year, resulting in the city paying $9,000 for the 2024 Nissan Leaf.
[RELATED: Several Electric School Buses Pulled Off the Road Amidst EV Mandate Controversy…]
The Nissan Leaf will be leased from Bill Doge of Saco, and the two Hyundai Ionics from Rowe Ford of Westbrook.
In January, the City of South Portland announced that they were working to close a $4 million shortfall in their current fiscal year budget that they attributed to mistakenly not raising property taxes on residents enough to support the City Council-approved budget.
Hyundai, Kia recall over 147K vehicles (EV) due to damaged charging unit
https://www.foxbusiness.com/lifestyle/hyundai-kia-recall-over-147k-vehicles-damaged-charging-unit
So. Ptld. City Council just have absolutely no sense.
If it’s woke, they’ll be all over it despite cost.
People of portland just watch as the city spends taxpayer money 💰 on ridiculous and wastefull environmental hazardous E.V’S
They will bankrupt your city portland, KICK THE MARXISTS OUT NOW
The stupidity of leasing three electric vehicles is insane State of Maine. Stop electing idiots. They are destroying Maines way of Life.
Apparently there are no care dealerships in south Portland? What happened to shopping locally?
Apparently there are no car dealerships in South Portland? Shop local I say. Maybe the Saco and Biddeford dealers are more DEI friendly?
Probably a good fiscal decision. My Ioniq 5 is very cheap to run, and is currently being used as a generator due to our power outage,