[music]
[electric engine]
Cory Stokesberry: We’re excited to have 27 brand new electric vehicles at the Grand Coulee Dam.
These vehicles come with zero emissions, extremely low maintenance, and they’re an altogether fun ride.
Work crews will be able to get their work done much more efficiently.
Matt Tillman: We've grown about 130 employees over the past two years,
and using the electric vehicles as a way to offset our current gas fleet is really going to help us meet our mission.
Doug Anderson: So these are very powerful answers for us. And they’re darn cute, they’re actually very attractive.
I think it’s really cool.
And I know I’m going to look really good driving one around.
[music]
Doug: Right now Grand Coulee is purchasing about 100, 110 thousand dollars' worth of fossil fuels or gasoline every year.
With electric vehicles we're expecting to be able to cut that consumption by 10, maybe 15 percent.
Matt: In addition to that, it's going to help us reduce our greenhouse gas emissions,
because we're going to be using more of the electric vehicles versus our fossil fuel vehicles.
Doug: We meet the president's requirements that we reduce our dependence on fossil fuels.
These vehicles come a long ways toward that goal.
[music]
Matt: Well they're not golf carts. These are industrial electric vehicles.
They're built for an industrial environment, like Grand Coulee, and they’re powered by the dam.
Doug: We have two types. We have one that's made for moving people. We have one that's made for moving tools.
We have a two door and a four door version, very good looking.
Also, they’re made in America.
[music]
Kurt: The EXV2 Patriot was specifically built and designed around the needs of the Grand Coulee Dam,
with a high performance package, with the full enclosure, toolboxes, ladder rack, pull out bed tray.
[bed tray pushed in]
Matt: They have toolbox storage, tool racks, storage racks on the top, and the ability to transport multiple employees at a time.
They have eight lithium ion batteries, they get us distances up to 50 miles.
They're powered by renewable energy that's generated here at the dam.
Kurt: All of these built into the EXV2 Patriot are just little additions that can
make their lives easier every day through the tasks they perform.
[car startup sounds]
Doug: One of the things we do is we have to drive around a relatively large complex.
It’s not very far from place to place, but there’s an awful lot of small trips, short trips.
These vehicles are pretty darn good at getting in, you go a short distance, you turn it off.
You come back later, you hop in, you go the other short distance.
That's what these are made for, and this is a large part of the work that we do at Grand Coulee Dam.
Doug: They are purpose built. They're industrial in design. They're heavy duty.
They should last many years on the type of use that we're putting them to.
We reduce our dependence on fossil fuels. We keep our own staff invigorated with, again,
it’s more American-made stuff. It’s American-made electricity.
This is a good fit for Grand Coulee.
[music]