On Tuesday, the Walnut Creek City Council is set to provide direction on its Electric Vehicle Strategic Plan.
The plan is aimed at serving as a guide to electrification of the City of Walnut Creek’s vehicle fleet and management of City-owned electric vehicle chargers. The effort is tied to Walnut Creek’s 2023 Sustainability Action Plan (SAP), which calls for the City to reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2045. According to the staff report, transportation accounts for approximately 60% of community-wide greenhouse gas emissions in Walnut Creek.
The City’s plan also comes as the California Air Resources Board implements its Advanced Clean Fleets regulations, which establish zero-emission vehicle transition requirements for certain public fleet vehicles.
The SAP has seven strategies relating to reducing emissions through transportation and land use. Three of those strategies directly address electric vehicles and electric vehicle (EV) chargers. Those strategies are:
- Expand adoption and accessibility of electric vehicle modes.
- Increase availability of electric vehicle charging.
- Electrify the City’s vehicle fleet
According to the report, in total, 175 vehicles were assessed, 66 of which are regulated by Advanced Clean Fleets (ACF). ACF generally applies to non-public safety medium and heavy-duty vehicles. At the time of the assessment, the City had 12 fully electric vehicles, 3 plug-in hybrid, and 25 non-plug-in hybrid vehicles in the fleet.
Currently, Walnut Creek uses a Fleet Replacement Policy to guide assessment of when to consider replacing vehicles. For non-public safety vehicles, the policy recommends assessment at 10-12 years of use or 100,000 miles. For the analysis in the EV Strategic Plan, it is assumed that vehicles will be replaced when they meet the milestones in this policy. However, over the past five years, budgetary and regulatory constraints have led the City to extend the life of vehicles when operationally viable.
Previously, on November 18, 2025, City Council authorized staff to participate in PG&E’s EV Fleet Electrification Program for the Heather Farm Corp Yard — This project is currently in design, and the preliminary estimated cost for the City’s portion of the project is approximately $500,100, including both supply infrastructure improvements and purchase and installation of EV chargers.
Additional fleet chargers are planned for the Lawrence Way Corp Yard — where a
majority of the fleet would be charged, the plans include five dual port DC fast chargers and 12 additional dual port level two chargers. The preliminary estimated cost for the complete project is approximately $1,312,900.
Total Cost of Ownership
The city took three scenarios for total cost ownership of fleet transition. The analysis took into consideration the cost to procure, fuel, and maintain the vehicles, inclusive of additional infrastructure required for charging through 2040.
- Non-Transition: this scenario assumes that the City would not buy any additional zero emission vehicles and instead replace vehicles with internal combustion engines. This scenario is not feasible as it would not be compliant with ACF regulations. It was included in the analysis to serve as a baseline to better understand the changes to budgeting that would be required for the other compliant scenarios.
- ACF Core: this scenario assumed that staff would only procure zero emission vehicles when required to comply with ACF regulations.
- ACF Plus: this scenario assumes that in addition to the minimum vehicles required for ACF compliance, staff would also procure zero emission vehicles when financially and operationally feasible. These additional vehicles are generally light duty non-public safety vehicles.
Total:
- $19.886 million for non-transition
- $26.622 million for ACF Core
- $25.496 million for AFC Plus
According to the staff report, ACF Plus would require an additional $5.6 million over 14 years than the baseline Non-Transition scenario.
Current Status EV Charger Program
The City offers EV charging at four garages (Broadway, South Locust, Library, and Lesher) and two surface lots (City Hall and Shadelands Art Center). Across these sites there are a total of 40 publicly available charging ports. City-wide there are approximately 150 – 250 publicly accessible charging ports in or very near the city.
The City also operates an additional 12 charging ports for City fleet use, bringing the City’s total charging port count to 52. The City is on track to meet the goal set in the SAP of 70 charging ports on City property by year-end 2030, with the next additions anticipated to focus on expanding charging capacity for the City’s fleet.
Public Charger Program Management
Staff estimates that it currently costs approximately $250,000 annually to run the EV charging program — electricity, networking fees, maintenance, and staff time.
To offset the cost to run the program, staff recommends charging a fee for use of the chargers. The rate of the fee would be set by analyzing other nearby public-agency-owned chargers.
According to the staff report, staff intend to begin with a fee below average for the region, to continue to encourage the adoption of electric vehicles in the community. Staff would monitor usage data and program costs closely and adjust price when needed within the established fee range. Before beginning to charge a fee, staff would conduct outreach to users of the EV charger program to inform them of the upcoming change.
Staff recommend targeting the fee within the category of services that have both community and individual benefit, which in the proposed User Fee Cost Recovery Policy is suggested at 40-80% cost recovery. The range in the master fee schedule for this fee is $0.16-$1.00 per kilowatt hour. Individuals benefit from the use of chargers with fuel for their vehicle, and the community benefits from increased use of EVs in our community. The increase in use of EVs leads to a reduction in local air pollution and climate change related emissions.
Financial Impacts
This item has no direct financial impacts; however, the activities recommended in the plan will have future financial impacts on the City. The partial fleet transition to electric vehicles is estimated to cost approximately $5.6 million more than a baseline non-transition scenario over the next 14 years.
Staff estimate that approximately $250,000 is currently spent annually to operate and maintain the City’s EV chargers. If a third-party vendor is utilized to maintain and operate City-owned chargers, revenue from charging a fee to use EV chargers could partially offset the costs. Staff would return to Council to approve the service agreement with a third-party vendor, the terms of which are expected to include information on the fee structure.
Document:
- Staff Report: Click Here
- Walnut Creek EV Plan: Click Here
If You Go
Walnut Creek City Council Meeting
August 18, 2026
6:00 pm
City Hall at 1666 N. Main Street, Walnut Creek
Full Agenda: Click Here
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