Thirty-six new Ford Escape Hybrids were added to Development Services' fleet of vehicles in June 2008.

By Nevada state law, 90% of the vehicles counties and local governments acquire each year are required to use alternative fuels.

The majority of Development Services' fleet of 243 vehicles use an alternative fuel, such as compressed natural gas (CNG) and biodiesel. The fleet already contained a few hybrids, and now 36 more hybrids running on electricity and gas have been added. The new hybrids get 28 miles to the gallon in the city.

Development Services is heading in the direction of replacing all our CNG and biodiesel vehicles with hybrids as usage requires, but it remains to be seen which type of alternative fuel the department will chose due to advances in technology that will most likely occur in the near future. The department is currently researching alternative fuels and may go in another direction other than hybrids.

Despite the fact the department may replace our biodiesel vehicles with another type of alternatively fueled vehicle, Diesel Power Magazine featured our diesel trucks in their August 2008 issue. View the article here.           

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