​To The Editor:

Thanks to our Village’s partnership with Sustainable Westchester, the nonprofit intermunicipal consortium, residents have the opportunity to see unique savings on the purchase of electric vehicles. By leveraging the buying power of its member communities, Sustainable Westchester has succeeded in securing a deal that allows consumers to buy an all-electric Nissan leaf for $17,490 after discounts, rebates and tax credits. The Leaf cost 50% less per mile than a traditional gasoline-fueled vehicle.

Beyond the economic benefits to consumers, though, this deal helps to achieve important environmental and public health goals by accelerating the deployment of electric vehicles (EVs). As many readers may know, the American Lung Association recently gave Westchester County’s air quality an F-rating–mainly due to air pollution from automobiles–EVs produce no tailpipe emissions.

In addition, EVs are essential to our fight against global warming. And the science shows that EVs today, using current technology, can get the job done.

A recent MIT study found that roughly 90 percent of the personal vehicles on the road daily could be replaced by a low-cost electric vehicle available on the market today. Moving to EVs would more than meet near-term U.S. climate targets for personal vehicle travel. Overall, when accounting for the emissions today from the power plants that provide the electricity, this would lead to an approximately 30 %reduction in emissions from transportation.

Deeper emissions cuts would be realized as our electric grid switches to renewables overtime. Indeed, NY’s solar capacity has grown by 1,000% since 2011. Further progress is being made as our state works through our state energy plan towards the target of 50% of electricity from renewable source by 2030.

It took the world 20 years to get the 1st million EVs on the road – but 18 months for the 2nd million, and only 8 months for the 3rd. EVs are coming fast and we appreciate the work of Sustainable Westchester on behalf of our communities to speed that progress and save our residents money in the process.

To learn more about Sustainable Westchester electric vehicle discount program, visit SustainableWestchester.org, cleantransportation@sustainablewestchester.org or call their Mount Kisco office at (914) 242-4725.

Sincerely,

Brian Pugh