SAN FRANCISCO – 350Green announced its plans yesterday for a national network of electric vehicle (EV) charging stations. Starting with its first project in the San Francisco Bay Area, the company plans to install and operate stations across urban retail shopping centers and other places near where EV drivers live and work. This approach aims to address two of the most vexing challenges facing widespread adoption of EVs: range anxiety and access to a garage for overnight charging.
“Most of the early focus around EV infrastructure has been on putting charging stations in the home garages of customers, which is great if you have a garage. But since many residents in cities don’t have access to a garage, this effectively limits the number of people who can participate in the EV revolution,” said Mariana Gerzanych, 350Green’s founder and CEO. “Because our public charging stations with fast chargers will be widely and conveniently located near where residents live and work, EV ownership will suddenly become an option for all, regardless of whether they have access to charging in a personal garage.”
The Bay Area project is funded in part by a grant from the Bay Area Air Quality Management District (BAAQMD) as part of its Spare the Air program, which also aims to make owning an electric vehicle in the Bay Area a viable option for residents.
“As part of protecting the air quality in the Bay Area, we’re committed to making electric vehicle technology available to all,” said Jack Broadbent, executive officer of BAAQMD. “Adding to our electric vehicle charging infrastructure will make it easier for Bay Area residents to Spare the Air every day by going electric.”
350Green will build and operate fast charging station plazas in six cities around the area: Albany, Menlo Park, Milbrae, Palo Alto, San Francisco, and Sunnyvale. All of the plazas will be installed in the parking lots of select, high-traffic retail locations, at no cost to the host location.
According to the BAAQMD, the transportation sector accounts for more than 50 percent of air pollution in the Bay Area. Significant emission reductions from the transportation sector will help the Bay Area attain and maintain state and national air quality standards.
Production numbers from EV automakers project approximately one million EVs on US roads by 2015, and possibly 27 million (or 10 percent of all vehicles in the US) by 2020. In the Bay Area, the percentages are even higher: there may be almost 400,000 EVs on the road in the Bay Area by 2020 – or 12 percent of all the area’s vehicles.
350Green will announce specific locations in the coming weeks, and construction, operation and management of its Bay Area network of direct-current (DC) fast chargers and Level 2 chargers will be complete by June 2012. Additional markets around the country in which 350Green will build networks will be determined in collaboration with the company’s city and state partners, as well as stakeholders in the various communities.
Source: 350Green press release, February 1, 2011
