GSA Blog

GSA is driving federal fleet electrification

Today is the start of National Drive Electric Week, a campaign raising awareness about the benefits of battery-electric and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles. At GSA, we’re proud to once again celebrate this week as we continue to help our federal agency partners plan, acquire, and deploy electric vehicles in the federal fleet. 

Our work responds to a 2021 Executive Order that calls for 100% of all federal fleet purchases to be zero-emission by 2035. Federal agencies have ordered over 5,300 zero-emission vehicles (ZEVs) this fiscal year.

GSA has helped simplify electric vehicle adoption and support federal agencies’ electric vehicle and charging station needs with GSA’s one-stop shop. 

GSA’s Electrification Efforts

In fiscal year 2023, GSA offered 66 of the latest commercially available ZEVs. In fiscal year 2024, GSA expects greater vehicle availability in part because of federal policy and investment and supply chain improvements.  

GSA’s Electric Vehicle Suitability Assessment tool can help federal agencies electrify their fleet. The tool uses fleet telematics data to help agencies make data-driven vehicle replacement decisions based on their own usage data, function, cost-of-ownership analysis and range requirements. 

Infrastructure is a critical first step to electrifying fleets. GSA’s self-service Electric Vehicle Supply Equipment (EVSE) Blanket Purchase Agreements (BPAs) offer charging hardware, software, and services such as maintenance, consulting, and site assessment work. Through our contracting solutions we are ensuring all IT charging providers awarded through our EVSE BPAs are vetted for cyber security and supply chain risks.

Pairing these BPAs with the design-build and construction Indefinite Delivery, Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) Contracts, GSA has a turnkey solution allowing IDIQ holders to purchase from the EVSE BPA holders. This all-in-one solution makes it easier for federal agencies and other eligible users across the federal government to procure the charging stations and solutions they need to keep their vehicles charged and ready to go.

ZEVs in Action

Agencies are electrifying their fleets and seeing the benefits of driving electric!

At Fort Knox, Tennessee, the Army offers both federal fleet and employee charging to support employee and fleet missions together. At the Savannah River Site in Aiken, South Carolina, the Department of Energy (DOE) is keeping over 100 ZEVs charged with innovative charging solutions from slower trickle chargers to faster DC Fast chargers that can provide close to a full charge in under an hour. DOE also uses electric vehicles for daily security checks around their remote sites in the Moab desert in Utah. Despite driving for over 60 miles a day with the air-conditioning cranked to high, the DOE found that all the vehicles only needed nightly charging using the included Level 1 charging cords. 

Every day, mission requirements are being met with electric vehicles, including across America’s national parks through support of the National Park Service’s Alternative Transportation Program.

GSA is committed to updating its customers through its ongoing Desktop Workshops, annual in-person FedFleet training, and viewing presentations from our latest virtual EVSE Showcase.  

To help agencies accelerate their ZEV deployment, the DOE Federal Energy Management Program (FEMP) created the ZEV Ready Center, a step-by-step guide on everything from selecting ZEV models to finding what charging strategy will work for unique mission requirements.

To find out more about GSA’s role in fleet electrification, listen to our latest podcast, State of Charge, featuring GSA’s Travel, Transportation and Logistics Assistant Commissioner, Crystal Philcox and the White House Council on Environmental Quality Director of Zero-Emission Vehicle Fleets, Mark Dowd. Additional information is on GSA’s Electrify The Fleet webpage.