County's Fleet Gets A Little Bit Greener

Two Howard County offices hope to spend less on gas, with the addition of electric Nissan Leaf sedans, which County Executive Ken Ulman unveiled last week.

The Sheriff’s Office and the Department of Inspections, Licenses and Permits now have a 2012 Nissan LEAF, which can run about 100 miles per charge, according to a county spokesperson.

The vehicles, which cost $38,000 each, will use approximately $600 of electricity annually, according to a county press release.

“This is just the latest step in our initiative to make Howard County a leader in environmental sustainability and the protection of our natural resources," Ulman said in a statement.

Employees will charge the vehicles at the Thomas Dorsey Building in Columbia, with the charging station provided to the county through a Maryland Energy Administration grant. The charging station is also free for employees and residents of Howard County.

The vehicles are far from the first electric vehicles to grace the Howard County streets though, according to the Columbia Archives website. In 1976, urban planner Jim Rouse purchased a Sebring-Vanguard CitiCar for the Rouse Company, and drove it around the headquarters in Columbia, says the Archives website.