Electric Vehicles Get Boost in Oregon, San Francisco

We have good news to report for EV fans.

First, Oregon has announced a partnership with Nissan to encourage the production and implementation of EVs across the state. In the deal, Nissan will supply the state with electric cars beginning in 2010, while Oregon and Portland General Electric, a utility, will begin to develop a network of recharging stations to serve the vehicles.

Not to be outdone, San Francisco announced its intent to become the "electric vehicle capital of the U.S." In fairness to its neighbors, Oakland and San Jose are also part of the nine-point plan to introduce the necessary infrastructure when EVs hit the market in a couple years.

The mayors of the three cities will work with Palo Alto start-up Better Place in a public-private partnership that many California politicians see as the model for shifting cars off gasoline. All of them, it seems, eagerly await the federal money that is likely to come pouring in when President-elect Barack Obama takes office.

Bay Area Stakes Claim as the "EV Capital of the U.S." (Autopia)

Comments

Great, let's put plug in stations all over the place. They can be installed fairly easily. Billing can either be by credit card or cash I imagine, similar to parking meters.

There's the rub, these current systems don't take payments. A good test of the system but not a viable system in mass numbers.

Maybe you won't have to pay for the electricity - if there is justification in the savings from environmental damage caused by cars that just run on gas. But that would probably only be for a while. Sooner or later there would be a charge for it.

Yep - same as the systems in London. They are FREE. The reason being they need a driver to encourage people into the electric cars. If you can leave your car charging for the day while you are at work then it's just another thing saving you money.

Obviously, once EVs become mainstream I'm sure the fatcats will want to start charging, but I think it is a good way to encourage increasing use of a new technology.

Sorry, electricity is not free, and retirees living on a pension should not have to pay for the electricity used by your new EV at a "free" charging station. The excess generation capacity to serve electric cars will be available at night and that's when you'd be charged a low rate for the topping off your battery. If you want to charge up during the day everywhere you stop, well then you'll be charged a much higher rate, and that's only right.

Red, Electricity generation is not free, but the idea is that the cost of using gas is higher than the cost of charging the vehicle. If retiree's have to pay for their share so be it, they drove vehicles that damaged the environment just like everyone else. A similar concept is paying school taxes when you don't have kids in school, people pay for benefits to society.

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