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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes - Futures Committee - 12/11/2017 - City Manager’s Office 300 LaPorte Avenue PO Box 580 Fort Collins, CO 80522 970.221.6505 970.224.6107 - fax fcgov.com MINUTES CITY OF F ORT COLLINS F UTURES COMMITTEE MEETING Date: December 11, 2017 Location: CIC Room, City Hall, 300 Laporte Ave. Time: 4:00–6:00pm Committee Members Present: Ray Martinez Kristin Stephens Wade Troxell Other Councilmembers Present: Bob Overbeck City Staff: Darin Atteberry, City Manager Jeff Mihelich, Deputy City Manager Jackie Kozak-Thiel, (Staff Liaison) Presenters : Matthew Freedman, Vice President of Development, Securing America’s Future Energy and the Electrification Coalition Additional Staff Present: Carrie Frickman, Climate Program Coordinator Jackson Brockway, Business Analyst Community Members: Mick Mercer, City of Loveland Colin Garfield, Fort Collins Citizen Broadband Committee Meeting called to order at 4:16 pm Approval of Minutes: Kristin moved to approve November minutes. Ray seconded. Motion passed unanimously. 3-0-0. Chairman Comments: None. 2 Think Tank Item 8-2017: Electric and Autonomous Vehicles Matthew Freedman, Vice President of Development, Securing America’s Future Energy and the Electrification Coalition, presented on the shifts in consumer preferences of automobiles and the rise of electric and autonomous vehicles. • The automobile market is o rganized principally around the issue of oil dependence, which presents concerns to national security and foreign policy. Reference graphic titled, “The US is at the mercy of an unstable and unfree oil market.” • The Electrification Coalition was created to advance the cause to fundamentally break/reduce dependence on oil. • Consumer demand for EVs continues to grow in an increasingly competitive market. Over 40 different models of EVs to choose from every major automobile manufacturer. • A lot of the competitive market can be credited to creating a healthy ecosystem including group buy programs, education workshops, local policies and incentives, etc. – something Fort Collins has done well. Fort Collins has exceeded national sales rates every year for EVs. • 54% of new car sales will be EV by 2040 , according to Bloomberg news. However, EV adoption remains low in the market share overall. o A lot of EVs are sold in December due to the tax breaks/credits benefits. For example, when Atlanta, GA repealed their EV tax credit, sales dropped 80%. o The Electrification C oalition (EC) advocates for the EV tax credit as it is c rucial to continued growth for EVs. • EC ’s modeling suggests that the potential to reduce oil dependence is dramatically impacted if we can shift to utilizing autonomous vehicles. • What is the connection between EVs and AVs? o Computer systems that go into the sensor systems that go into self-driving vehicles are well adapted in an EV. o AVs are likely to be electric. o One of the reasons people don’t buy EVs is because on a road trip, people don’t want to be bothered to charge their vehicle. o Fleet situation: it’s ideal to have the right vehicle for every mission, rather than one vehicle for every mission. • Benefits of AVs: o Road safety dramatically improves o Improvement in mobility for older Americans and the disability community o Makes cities more people-centered, rather than vehicle-centered • What’s delaying the widespread use of AVs? o The delay is not due to engineering, it’s more of a policy issue. All technical problems will be worked out, but the threats to the autonomous future relate to policy and the patchwork of state regulatory and legislative needs. o Consumers are also causing delays - people are not familiar with this technology. The more that people can see AVs working to solve the problems in their lives, the more they can accept AVs. • Cities are a major part of electrifying the transportation sector. More than 50 cities around the world are already participating in AV pilot programs. 3 Comments /Q&A: • Q: How long until we have EVs that can go longer distance? o Chevy bolt and 2018 Leaf are expected to go more than 100 miles o Technology is now more mature and batteries improving. o Question is: do we really need a Tesla with 300 miles of range? How often are you going that far? In the process of building a car that can go that far, you add significant costs and other inefficiencies. • Q: Sales of EV cars will be 54% by 2040, but it’s dependent on tax credits. Is that the same prediction without the tax credits? o To lose the EV credit would be an enormous set-back and would significantl y impact sales in Northern CO. Until you can change the value proposition, there’s going to be a struggle to capture larger portions of the market. • Q: How do you recycle EV batteries? o There’s a technology curve in terms of bringing the cost of EV batteries down. o Good news on battery side, relationship between cleaning the grid and mass adoption of EVs. Number of projects underway using degraded automotive battery that would be used for grid storage, home energy storage, etc. in distributed energy system. o Secondly, most materials in battery are not recyclable. Need to take costs down; the technology will get there eventually. • Q: With growth of EVs, what about the increased demand on electric supply grid? o Clearly an issue, but we’ve seen several models around the country where EVs themselves can be part of solution to that problem in managing peak demand. o Should be concerned in general that grid is not more resilient, i.e., cyber-attacks, managing peak demand, etc. Brings us back to need for advocacy of smart mobility. Need to build better grid, integrate it with transportation system that provides accessible, affordable, reliable transportation to entire community. • Q: What is Japan, as a center of innovation in mobility, doing that we should be doing? o Takeaways from Mayor Troxell’s trip: ▪ 1. Any societal level transformation must be driven by partnership of private investment, entrepreneurial innovation, and public policy. Policy is needed around regulations, encouraging and enabling private industry to innovate and educating the public. ▪ 2. Japan not advanced as we are on first-last mile solutions, intermodal handoff, etc. Technology is incredible, but US has an opportunity to lead the way in smart mobility and innovative transportation that is interconnected and accessible for all. • Q: Does the City do any legislative work on some of these issues, especially those with regard to the tax plan? o Generally and historically, yes. DO: Next Steps • Continue monitoring legislation that may impact EV and AV use in community. 4 Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative • Mayor Wade Troxell reported that he has a class this week and is participating in storytelling and narrative development with a professor on Harvard’s faculty. • Mayor Troxell attended a Mayor’s gathering that occurred in Charlotte, NC regarding citizen-oriented experiences. Those experiences were aligned with a lot of the work that Fort Collins has been doing with customer experience with City services. Additional Discussion: • Mayor Troxell congratulated Jackie for receiving the award on behalf of the City of Fort Collins in Cities for Action – Climate Action Planning. Fort Collins was the only non- C40 city to be awarded. • City Manager Atteberry mentioned that Fort Collins is one of only two council-manager forms of government participating in the Bloomberg Harvard program. It has been a great opportunity to translate to Harvard how the council-manager form operates compared to the other strong-mayor participants. • City Manager Atteberry mentioned that the Bitcoin conversation could be a worthy topic for Futures Committee meeting. • Reminder that January meeting is cancelled. Meeting adjourned by Wade Troxell at 5:32 pm.