By Dan Klepal
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Cincinnati councilman David Crowley wants some city vehicles running on battery power next year.

Crowley is asking that the city develop a plan to purchase hybrid vehicles, which run on a combination of gasoline and battery power, to replace some of the aging cars in the city's fleet. The councilman says hybrid vehicles are a good idea because they pollute less and could save taxpayer money in lower gasoline costs.

But critics say the sticker price for hybrid cars are about $6,000 higher than their ethanol-running counterparts - an added expense that would be difficult to make up in fuel savings alone.

The hybrid vehicles would be used by administrators only, not police or fire officials. The city owns 364administrative vehicles - which are used, for example, by supervisors in the Metropolitan Sewer District and the Code Enforcement departments. The city currently owns one hybrid car and about one-third of the administrative fleet operates on ethanol.

Crowley said his plan, which doesn't specify how many hybrid vehicles the city should buy, would allow managers to weigh cost savings and performance of the hybrids against the city's 135 ethanol vehicles.

"It's just a sense that this is a direction we ought to go, not necessarily to go out and buy 15 of them next year," Crowley said. "I just think we ought to seriously look into it.

"I just don't think we ought to wait 10 years until these vehicles are totally established," he said.

Jim Schwab, fleet services manager for Cincinnati, said the city typically replaces its vehicles after six years or 60,000 miles.

Schwab said hybrid vehicles are about $3,500 more expensive to operate over their lifetimes than ethanol cars. That analysis, Schwab said, considers the vehicles' sticker prices and fuel efficiency. Long-term maintenance costs are unknown because hybrid cars are relatively new.

"They don't have the payback that our ethanol vehicles do," Schwab said. "Unless someone forces me, you won't see me going out and buying 50 of them."

The city also has made a major investment in ethanol, he said, and sells the alternative fuel to other entities such as the University of Cincinnati. Consumers who buy hybrid cars are eligible for a $2,000 federal tax deduction. In some cases cities can sell those tax credits, but Schwab said it is unclear if that option is available with hybrid cars.

Councilman Pat DeWine agrees with Schwab. He doesn't think the time is right to invest in hybrid vehicles, mainly because of a looming deficit and more pressing issues.

"Here we have a city that is projected to have a $60 million deficit by 2008, and all council members can do is think of more pet projects to spend money on," DeWine said, adding that the city is already investing in environmentally-friendly cars that run on 85-percent ethanol. "I guess what bugs me the most, here's a city that will have a record number of homicides this year, and council members seem more concerned with this kind of silliness."

Crowley said he's not talking about replacing the ethanol fleet with hybrid cars.

"I think (ethanol) is a step in the right direction, too," Crowley said. "Hybrid vehicles offer another way of keeping the air clean, reducing cost and saving our natural resources. So let's just try enough of them to get a real good idea of what they offer."

Eric Stuckey, Hamilton County's assistant administrator, said the county has four hybrid cars in its Department of Environmental Services.

"They've been very well received," he said.

E-mail dklepal@yahoo.com