Feds help start electric car era around Puget Sound
Tuesday, October 20th, 2009
- Image by gumption via Flickr
WASHINGTON – A year from now, roughly 1,000 all-electric vehicles will be whispering around the Puget Sound are as part of a federally funded project that eventually might lead to an electric corridor stretching from Eugene, Ore., to Vancouver, B.C., where you could swipe your card and receive a 15-minute quick charge to speed you on your way.
Washington is one of five states with metro markets selected to participate in the 36-month study funded by a $100 million grant from the Department of Energy under the economic recovery program.
About 1,000 of the nearly 5,000 Nissan zero-emission electric vehicles, dubbed the LEAF, will be deployed to cities around central Puget Sound. More than 2,000 charging stations will be installed mostly in homes, but also in public and commercial areas.
Among the 47 partners in the project are Tacoma Power, Puget Sound Energy, King County, Seattle City Light, the Snohomish Public Utility District and the State of Washington.
“This is the largest deployment of electric cars and charging stations ever,” said Colin Reed, a spokesman for the EV (Electric Vehicle) Project. “No one has ever tried a project like this.”
Tacoma Power will not only help connect and supply electricity to the charge stations, but it also hopes to buy 10 or so of the vehicles for its own fleet.
“It’s the new frontier in sustainable green transportation,” said Frank Castro, utilities fleet manager for Tacoma Public Utilities.
Electric cars aren’t just some green fantasy, Reed said.
An estimated 1 million to 1.5 million plug-in electric cars could be on the road within five years. According to other estimates, by 2030 one-third of all new cars in the Northwest might be plug-in electric cars.
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