Ready to Drive Smart?
Smart business owners know that keeping up with technology is key to keeping customers and employees. As electric vehicles become more popular, how can your business serve their drivers and capture that forward-thinking market segment?
One way is through Tampa Electric's new Drive Smart program.
We will install more than 200 plug-in electric vehicle (EV) chargers at qualifying business customer locations and contribute up to $5,000 toward equipment and installation costs for each charge port. Participating businesses will be responsible for the electric service consumption to each location, at standard Tampa Electric rates. Businesses have the option to charge a fee to EV drivers for using the new charging ports.
As part of this exciting pilot program, Tampa Electric will own and maintain the chargers. In exchange, each business will agree to provide access to charging data that will directly support long-term electrical infrastructure planning and reliability. To ensure diverse placement of the chargers, we'll install chargers to serve five market segments: workplace, public/retail, multi-unit dwellings, income-qualified and government.
View our news release and frequently asked questions to learn more.
Complete a Drive Smart application
We are pleased to share that we received a generous number of applications from all business segments. However, we still encourage you to complete an application so we can contact you should additional charging ports become available.
Our Green Fleet
Our green fleet's electric vehicles (EV) deliver environmental and operational benefits. They reduce oil consumption and associated greenhouse gas emissions. Their cost to operate is lower because they require less maintenance. The all-electric Chevy Bolts, Ford Lightning Pickups and other EVs require no oil changes and their regenerative braking leads to reduced brake wear. Our Green Fleet consists of more than 30 all-electric vehicles.
We have trouble trucks with battery-powered buckets
Our green fleet consists of 14 diesel bucket trucks equipped with advanced battery technology that eliminates the need for the trucks' diesel engines to elevate the buckets. Instead, each truck's 48-Volt battery system produces more than enough power to elevate and control its bucket. This eliminates the need to idle and reduces fuel consumption by 30 percent.
