University acquires electric vehicles in ‘green’ effort

    Murray State, in its effort to “go green,” purchased four new Electric Utility Vehicles this summer, Assistant Director of Transportation, Dickie Turner, said.
    “They look kind of like golf carts, but significantly more high-tech,” Samantha Doran, sophomore from Mayfield, Ky., said.
    These electric vehicles, however, are not to be confused with golf carts. Turner said unlike golf carts, they are licensed for travel on roads with speed limits of 35 miles per hour or less.
    Turner said these vehicles are primarily used by facilities management to complete projects on campus.
    According to Turner, they are extremely helpful for the Building Services department, which uses them to transport equipment. The Grounds Maintenance department also uses them to get up close to the buildings on campus.
    “Because they are electric, the vehicles are almost completely silent and won’t disturb the people in the buildings,” Turner said. “They also can be driven on sidewalks without causing damage.”
    Dining Services also has one of these vehicles to transport food to the different dining locations on campus, Amanda Wicker, junior from Marion, Ky., and Thoroughbred Room employee, said.
    “They are really helpful and convenient for us,” she said. “It doesn’t take as long to transport food, and we can easily travel from the T-room, to Winslow, to the library, and back again. I wish you didn’t have to be 21 to drive one!”
    According to Turner, there are two major advantages to using these electric vehicles at Murray State.
    First, they are environmentally-friendly, he said.
    “Because they are electric, there’s no exhaust,” Turner said. “It’s part of Murray State’s effort to recycle and ‘go green’.”
    The other big advantage is cost, Turner said. It costs the university much less to charge one of these vehicles than it would to fuel a van or pick-up truck, he said. The electric vehicles can go 40 miles on a single charge, he said, and it costs about 60 cents to charge one fully. That’s 1.5 cents per mile.
    While they are not intended to totally replace the cars and trucks used by facilities management, they are much less expensive to run because they don’t use fuel, Turner said. The vans and trucks only get 25-30 miles to an electric vehicle’s 40, he said.
    Murray State’s not only saving money on fuel, Turner said, but also on insurance. The insurance on one of the new electric utility vehicles is about half the cost of the insurance on a new van or pick-up truck, he said.
    Murray State’s electrical utility vehicles can be seen on campus daily, aiding in various types of university work.
    Elizabeth Powell can be reached at elizabeth.powell@murraystate.edu.