Fiesta Ford – Saving Green by Going Green in The Coachella Valley

Fiesta Ford has been a pioneer auto dealer in the implementation of environmentally friendly processes and technologies.

The dealership operates a solar plant that generates over 550 thousand kilo watt hours (Kwh) of electricity annually. In a recent remodel the dealership replaced all landscape, showroom, service department and exterior building lighting which resulted in reducing electrical use by more than 350,000 Kwh annually.

In addition to the above, this year the dealership will replace all outdoor light fixtures with LED technology which will save 300,000 Kwh annually. In total the solar and lighting upgrades reduces this dealerships reliance on the electrical grid by 1,200,000 kilo watt hours annually, obviously a huge relief from the power company’s use of fossil fuels to generate power.

All A/C units have been upgraded to the most efficient ones available, which also saves considerable electricity not included in above totals.

As a point of reference, per our local utility the average household uses 779 Kwh per month.

Additionally, the dealership has converted its entire landscape to desert landscape and artificial turf.  Obviously the areas covered with artificial turf have a water use reduction of 100%.  The areas converted to desert landscape reduce water consumption by over 75%.  Thus saving hundreds of thousands of gallons of drinkable water.

Fiesta Ford provides employees with free charging stations for their plug in hybrid and electrical vehicles and also provides free charging stations to the general public.

The dealership uses plug in hybrids for its service shuttles as well.

Going Green by the Numbers…

1,200,000

Number of annual kilo watt hours reduces with solar and lightning upgrades.

550,000

Number of annual kilo watt hours the dealership solar plant generates.

300,000

Amount of kilo watt hours saved annually by replacing outdoor light fixtures with Metal Halide fixtures.

100

The percent of water reduction by converting most of the dealership landscape to artificial turf.

The dealership also utilizes lightning fast speed doors in the service area. These doors remain closed during the hot summer hours until a vehicle approaches. They open in just a couple seconds and close just as fast. This keeps the air conditioned shop cool and minimizes hear loss.