STANDISH – With the assistance of a Central Maine Power matching grant, the town of Standish has signed a two-year lease on a 2014 Ford Fusion plug-in hybrid.

The town is the first in the Lakes Region to add an electric vehicle to its municipal fleet.

Town Manager Gordon Billington, who now drives the Fusion to work instead of his Toyota Tundra pickup truck, said he is enjoying the vehicle, which he has been using since July 29.

“This thing, it really gives a very comfortable ride,” Billington said. “It drives extremely well. It’s ultra quiet.”

During weekdays, Billington leaves the car parked behind the Standish municipal building on Route 35. The car is available for use by other municipal employees. Billington charges it both at a new charging station at the town hall during the day and at his home in the evening.

Standish is the first municipality in the Lakes Region to lease a car through the power company’s electric vehicle pilot program, which is one of several that it has unrolled in recent years. According to Barry Woods, an attorney for Drummond & Drummond who is consulting for the power company on the latest pilot program, CMP established a matching grant program for electric and hybrid vehicles and charging stations in order to secure approval for the Maine Power Reliability Program, a $1.4 billion transmission system upgrade, from Maine’s Public Utilities Commission.

Woods said environmental groups demanded that the company fund three electric vehicle pilot programs in order to mollify their concerns about the upgrade. He described the agreement as a “quid pro quo.”

“It was a deal,” Woods said. “The good news is that even though Central Maine Power has not thought of this idea, they’ve adopted it pretty aggressively.”

According to Billington, the town has signed a two-year, $8,300 lease on the car, half of which will be covered by the power company through the pilot program. Billington has directed two years of his $1,800 annual travel allowance toward the lease, he said.

“You can look at it as a replacement of my travel allowance,” he said.

The car has an 85-mile range, Billington said. After driving 20 miles on electricity, it switches over to gasoline. As of Aug. 25, the Fusion had traveled 1,654 miles on 21 gallons of fuel and 234 kilowatt hours of electricity – or a combined rate of about 78 miles per gallon. The car had been driven for 40 hours, idled for nine hours, charged for 169 hours, and left completely “off” for another 425 hours. It had run 60 percent on gas, and 40 percent on electricity, through its dual engine system. The vehicle consumed about $9.24 worth of electricity from the town’s grid over the nearly one-month period, according to Billington.

“We drove it, and we were favorably impressed with its utility,” Billington said. “Although it only had an 85-mile range, just to drive around town in and out of the town hall it seemed to be an interesting concept.”

Electric vehicles are catching on around southern Maine. Through a Central Maine Power grant, the Greater Portland Council of Governments has signed a two-year lease on a Nissan Leaf electric vehicle that it has temporarily lent to the towns of Standish, Casco, Raymond, Naples and Windham as a demonstration project. And South Portland, Portland and Scarborough recently installed charging stations that residents can use.

According to Jennifer Puser, a transit and energy planner for the council of governments, Casco and Naples have installed electric chargers through the pilot program, as well. Puser said that although electric vehicles are expensive, the high cost is partially offset by low maintenance costs and federal tax credits.

Woods said that he expects new policies at the state level to accelerate the deployment of electric vehicles in the region. In the meantime, Woods said, the power company will soon roll out another pilot program that will help to catalyze the local electric vehicle market.

“The purpose behind the pilot is to get tires on the ground in the Greater Portland area, which more specifically means to broaden public awareness and interest of (electric vehicles) in Maine, and to begin to develop a group of interested stakeholders who can assist in more broadly developing the market here in Maine,” Woods said.

The power company’s stipulation agreement with the public utilities commission states that the Maine Power Reliability Program “will include a process for pilot projects to facilitate the increased use of hybrid and electric cars in Maine, and to promote the storage of renewable and other energy generated off-peak to replace fuels with greater climate impacts.”

Standish Town Manager Gordon Billington plugs in the town’s new 2014 Ford Fusion plug-in hybrid parked behind the Standish municipal building. The electric vehicle is available for use by municipal employees.