Speaking to councillors, council chief executive Dr Sue Bidrose said analysis by council staff earlier this week showed the fully-electric vehicles would come with a total cost of 21c per kilometre over their five-year cycle, as opposed to vehicles in the current fleet which cost 22c-24c per kilometre.
The council would buy 20 fully-electric cars to replace mid-range vehicles used around the city as they reached the end of their five-year life cycle, she said.
All councillors voted in favour of the motion with the exception of Cr Andrew Whiley, who said he needed more information to make an informed choice and abstained, and Cr Lee Vandervis, who was not present when the motion was discussed.
Dunedin Mayor Dave Cull said he was "fully supportive'' of the motion and his only issue was that the policy had not been enacted sooner.
"It's great to be in a position where doing the right thing is also doing the best thing financially,'' he said.
"It's like divesting from fossil-fuel extraction.''
Cr Whiley said he had concerns about the proposed vehicles - Nissan Leafs - and the lack of information about where "things were going'' in terms of electric car use.
"I like the intention of this but I'm not going to support it,'' he said.
Cr Richard Thomson retorted: "To the question of where it's all going? This is where it's going''.
