At a press conference today, Los Angeles mayor Eric Garcetti announced the lease of 160 battery electric vehicles and 128 plug-in hybrids for the city's vehicle fleet. "Today, we take another step toward becoming the most sustainable city in America," the mayor told reporters. "This year, Los Angeles will become home to the largest city-owned fleet of pure battery electric vehicles anywhere in the country, and we will save taxpayer dollars along the way."

The city's fleet already includes 23 electric scooters and three fully electric motorcycles, but this is the first major move into electric cars. The mayor has set ambitious environmental goals for the fleet, requiring that electric vehicles constitute half of the light duty fleet by 2017, and 80 percent of the city's fleet purchases by 2025.

Together with the new leases, the department also received two expensive loaner EVs: a BMW i3 and a Tesla Model S P85D, with 0-60 speeds of 7.0 and 3.2 seconds respectively. The police department was vague on what it would do with the cars, saying only: "These vehicles will be used for testing and research by LAPD technical experts to determine how this technology can support their future needs." Sounds like fun.