New Castle County receives grant for electric vehicles, lawnmowers, charging stations

Oct 11, 2023

Energize Delaware awards New Castle County a $498,000 grant to add eight new electric vehicles and two electric lawnmowers to the county fleet, and at least six charging stations.

County Executive Matt Meyer says this is a small step forward, but the county needs to be prepared for the changes ahead.

"Any step we take to transition from the old economy to the new economy I think puts us, and our community, and our country in a better place," Meyer says.

He adds most car companies have pledged to go partially or all-electric in the next decade.

"You, local officials, land use people, state government, environmental officials, private sector, gas stations, figure it out. Right? Because they’re coming," he says. "Gas stations 10 years, five years from now are not going to be what they are today and it's incumbent on us to figure it out. And it makes it a whole lot easier to have Drew and Energize Delaware here supporting us."

Energize Delaware's Executive Director Drew Slater says energizing lawn care equipment can be expensive, but lawnmowers put out 50 times more pollutants than vehicles.

"Electric lawnmowers are about 50 times a pollutant than vehicles are, so we need to make sure we are electrifying our lawn equipment," Slater says. "It is tremendously expensive to electrify lawnmowers and so this grant goes a long way to starting that process."

Meyer says there are around 50 passenger cars in the public works fleet, 12 already electric – this grant brings that number to 20.

Meyer says the county is also evaluating its options for electric pickup trucks and police vehicles, when it makes sense financially.