New York City Mayor Eric Adams and New York City Department of Citywide Administrative Services (DCAS) Commissioner Dawn M. Pinnock outlined a plan that will make New York City the first city on the East Coast to transition all heavy-duty vehicles in the city’s fleet from fossil to renewable fuel.
The city’s fleet currently includes more than 12,600 on- and off-road trucks and specialized equipment that operate on diesel fuel — but by the end of fiscal year 2024, they will all operate on renewable diesel.
Renewable diesel is proven to reduce carbon emissions and will replace up to 16 million gallons of fossil fuel used annually to power the city’s heavy-duty fleet, which includes garbage trucks and ambulances. After the full rollout of 16 million gallons of renewable diesel, the city will have cut 128 billion grams of carbon dioxide pollution each year. The transition began this past September, with 2.5 million gallons of renewable diesel already used across heavy-duty vehicles.
Renewable diesel biofuel fully replaces fossil diesel — protecting the environment and delivering the same quality fuel. As the city works to fully electrify its entire vehicle fleet — in line with the goals of Intro. 279-A, which Adams signed into law in October 2023 — renewable diesel represents an important and immediately impactful intermediate step until viable electric models become fully available for city trucks and specialized equipment.
Currently, 20,450 city vehicles — nearly three-quarters of the entire fleet — use a type of cleaner fuel alternative, such as electric, solar, hybrid or biofuels. The city is also on track to meet its goal of eliminating half of the fleet’s 2015 greenhouse gas emission levels by 2025, as outlined in the NYC Clean Fleet Plan.
The Adams administration is also moving swiftly to electrify the city’s fleet. DCAS expects to operate over 5,000 electric vehicles by the end of 2023, with the number of electric vehicles in the DCAS-managed fleet increasing by 49% in fiscal year 2023. DCAS also already operates the largest electric vehicle charging network in New York state, with over 1,800 charging ports available to fleet vehicles, including fast chargers and solar carports. The department will also deploy another 500 charging ports in the next 18 months.
Adams has already taken steps to make New York City’s vehicle fleet greener and safer — transitioning 4,000 city vehicles to electric vehicles three years ahead of schedule and winning more than $10 million in federal funding to transition nearly 1,000 more, creating the “Green Rides” program to make for-hire vehicles zero-emission or wheelchair-accessible by 2030, and adding lifesaving active intelligent speed assistance technology in hundreds of city vehicles.
