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Los Altos California Ads More Hybrid Cars to Their City's Fleet March 2005Los Altos soon will add a hybrid vehicle to its pool of 15 city cars.The city council approved the purchase of the Honda Civic earlier this month. It will be the first hybrid in the city fleet, City Manager Phil Rose said. ``It's a slow move,'' he said. ``A small move for the environment.'' The city received a $2,000 grant from the Bay Area Air Quality Management District to help offset the cost of a hybrid car, Rose said. That brought the price -- $22,950 -- within the range the city would have paid for non-hybrid vehicles. Los Altos Hills, which received a similar grant, voted to replace its town car with a hybrid Ford Escape SUV in October. Other Peninsula cities also are adding hybrids to their fleets: Palo Alto has a Toyota Prius in its 650-vehicle pool, in addition to about 70 vehicles fueled by natural gas and several more that run on biodiesel. Mountain View bought a Prius for its 250-car pool last year. ``We're trying to move that direction, into some of the higher-efficiency vehicles,'' said Gregg Hosfeldt, the business manager for Mountain View's public works department. Several years ago, Los Altos received a grant to use electric cars in the city fleet, Rose said. The city had to return the cars when the grant ran out, he said, and chose not to purchase more. The hybrids seemed like a better idea, he said. ``We're trying to see how well they work in our car pool,'' Rose said. ``If they're successful, then yeah, sure, we'd buy more.'' Rose said he wasn't sure exactly when the car would be ready for the road: Los Altos is waiting for a white Civic to be available so that it will match the rest of the city's cars. SOURCE: San Jose Mercury News | ||
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