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San Diego in talks over city vehicle charging network

Meetings will highlight opportunities for San Diego businesses to integrate with the new vehicle recharging network

A series of meetings will be held throughout this month in San Diego, California, to discuss plans to deploy a network of electric vehicle recharging stations across the city.

The city is one of 16 areas in the US that will receive a share of 15,000 public and private fast-charging stations in a federally-funded program from Californian firm ECOtality.

The program, called the EV Project, aims to establish recharging infrastructure to coincide with the launch of mass-production plug-in electric vehicles from late 2010, such as the Nissan LEAF and Chevy Volt.

For the last six months, San Francisco firm ECOtality has been working with city officials and San Diego Gas & Electric, as well as other stakeholders, to work out optimal locations for recharging stations in San Diego.

Three maps have been drawn up detailing possible sites for recharging stations along a series of regional electric vehicle corridors.

ECOtality now plans to hold meetings with business and property owners, retailers and local chambers of commerce to discuss its recommendations and lay out possible opportunities for hosting electric vehicle charging stations.

“Comprehensive”

Jonathan Read, President and CEO of ECOtality, said: “We are taking a comprehensive approach that has given careful thought to the best places to locate commercially available chargers to eliminate range anxiety and create a highly functional, sustainable charging system.”

ECOtality unveiled its new “Blink” recharging stations last month (see this BrighterEnergy.org story). The technology allows car owners to simply plug in and walk away, charging a battery in between two to six hours.

San Diego City Supervisor Ron Roberts said deploying publicly-available electric vehicle chargers would help the transition to cleaner energy, and also improve local air quality.

He said: “With the Nissan Leaf, Chevrolet Volt and other electric vehicles soon to common on our streets and highways, including 2,000 miles of roads the county maintains, it is important to plan for a regional fueling infrastructure.”

• For more information on the dates, times and locations of the sub-regional informational meetings please contact Andy Hoskinson at (619) 559-2118 or ahoskinson@ecotality.com.