Plan for electric cars moves ahead
San Francisco Business Times
The Bay Area is poised to become the first region in the country to fully support electric vehicles with outlets, recharging stations, and incentives coming soon.
The mayors of San Francisco, Oakland and San Jose today announced a nine-point policy plan to help speed the rapid development of electric cars here. That includes expedited permitting and installation of electric vehicle charging outlets as well as facilities that provide battery exchange or fast charging. And it calls for incentives for those who install outlets. The plan will also link electric vehicle programs to regional transit and air quality programs and establish pooled-purchase orders for electric vehicles in local and state government and private fleets.
“Our aim is to make the Bay Area — and eventually California — the electric vehicle capital of the U.S.,” said San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom in a statement.
The first steps of the plan will begin to be rolled out in December. Where the money will come from to fund these programs is still unclear. The San Francisco mayor’s office said through a spokesman it has identified funding sources at the regional and state levels but that it won’t announce anything until they are secure, likely in 2009.
With the announcement, Palo Alto-based Better Place, which provides the network for electric cars, announced it was launching in California, beginning with the Bay Area. In addition to designing charging outlets, Better Place is developing a subscription model that will automatically charge cars for the electricity they use, like mobile phone minutes.
Better Place estimates its network investment in the Bay Area will total $1 billion when its electric charging system is deployed, according to a press release about the announcement from Newsom’s office.
The company raised $200 million in venture funding to launch the company in May 2007. Investors include VantagePoint Venture Partners, New York, New York-based Maniv Energy Capital and Morgan Stanley. Chairman Idan Ofer committed $100 million. Better Place already has announced a rollout in Denmark and Israel.
Major car companies plan to rollout electric cars in 2010 starting with the Chevy Volt.
Mark Duvall, program manager of Electric Transportation at the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), said several major auto makers plan to roll out new electric vehicle models starting in 2010 with the Chevy Volt. “No matter what happens, we’ll find ways to make the infrastructure work for the vehicles when they come out,” he said.
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