By 2030, every passenger car and small-to-midsize SUV in Southern California Edison’s fleet will be electric, the company recently announced. Additionally, the electric utility will convert 30% of medium-duty vehicles and pickup trucks, 8% of heavy-duty trucks and 60% of forklifts from fossil fuel to electric power.
SCE estimates that in pursuing its 2030 fleet electrification goals, it will save more than 620,000 gallons of fuel annually and eliminate close to 6,000 metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions a year, or the same amount that would be saved by taking 7,600 cars off the road for a year or planting and growing nearly 600,000 trees for 10 years.
“As we encourage our customers to consider fleet electrification, it is critical for our company and our industry to continue to show leadership in this area,” said Drew Murphy, senior vice president of Strategy and Corporate Development for Edison International, SCE’s parent company. “Setting goals to electrify our own fleet is one more way to show that we remain committed to making the changes necessary to clean our air and reduce harmful greenhouse gas emissions.”
Edison International laid out the 2030 goals for electrification of SCE’s fleet of more than 6,200 vehicles, including trailers and off-road equipment, in its recently published 2019 Sustainability Report. To meet the demands of its growing electric fleet, SCE has installed more than 370 charge ports at its facilities as of 2019. The electric company expects to need about 1,300 additional charge ports to achieve its 2030 fleet electrification goals.
“Electrifying transportation represents the biggest opportunity to reduce harmful greenhouse gas emissions that cause climate change and drive down pollution that impacts public health,” Murphy said.
In Pathway 2045, SCE’s data-driven analysis of what it will take for California to attain its goal of being carbon neutral by 2045, the company calls for the electrification of 76% of light-duty vehicles, 67% of medium-duty vehicles and 38% of heavy-duty vehicles in the state over the next 25 years.
“Our goals for company fleet electrification will put us on the path to achieving or exceeding the percentages within SCE’s fleet that we’ve proposed for the entire state,” Murphy said. “Not only are we moving away from fossil fuel as a company, but we are also actively helping our employees and our customers to convert from gasoline and diesel to clean electricity.”
The company encourages employees to adopt electric vehicles by offering 190 workplace charge ports at 36 of its facilities and plans to install about 150 additional employee charge ports this year. SCE employees and customers also have access to discounts on certain EV models.
SCE’s ongoing initiatives to help its customers adopt EVs include:
Charge Ready (for passenger vehicles): SCE has installed more than 1,800 EV chargers at more than 100 sites in its service area, including workplaces, destination centers, fleet yards and public parking. SCE is planning to expand the program to allow installation of about 50,000 more EV chargers in its service area.
Charge Ready Transport: SCE is beginning construction on the first of as many as 870 commercial sites that will help commercial customers electrify their medium- and heavy-duty fleets, including transit and school buses, delivery trucks and tractor-trailers.
Charge Ready Schools and Parks: The company is also implementing a two-year pilot program to add hundreds of new EV charging stations at school and state recreation area parking lots.
West Coast Clean Transit Corridor Initiative: SCE has collaborated with other utilities in California, Oregon and Washington to develop a conceptual plan to build infrastructure on I-5 and connecting highways to charge electric delivery trucks and big rigs.
Clean Fuel Reward: SCE offers customers who have purchased or leased a new or used passenger EV up to a $1,000 rebate through the Clean Fuel Reward Program.
SCE and its parent company have long been recognized as leaders in transportation electrification. Edison International President and CEO Pedro J. Pizarro currently cochairs a group of CEOs focused on electrifying transportation at Edison Electric Institute, a Washington-based association representing investor-owned electric companies.
To help extend its efforts in transforming the industry, SCE has recently joined a number of other organizations as well, including the Corporate Electric Vehicle Alliance, a collaborative group of companies focused on accelerating the transition to EVs led by the nonprofit group Ceres, the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions’ Business Environmental Leadership Council and Chagrin, a global EV charging standardization group.
