Washington state project could charge up electric car corridors

[kpete]

Source: McClatchy

Washington state project could charge up electric car corridors

By Les Blumenthal | McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON -- A year from now, roughly 1,000 all-electric vehicles will be whispering around Washington state's Puget Sound as part of a federally funded project that eventually may lead to an electronic corridor stretching from Eugene, Ore., to Vancouver, B.C., where drivers could swipe a credit card and receive a 15-minute charge to speed them on their 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.

The first corridor that will be developed runs between Phoenix and Tucson, Ariz., a distance of just over 100 miles. Others corridors could be developed between San Diego and Los Angeles, and Nashville, Knoxville and Chattanooga in Tennessee. Colin Reed, a spokesman for the EV, or Electric Vehicle, Project, said a corridor running along Interstate 5 between San Diego and Vancouver, B.C., may not be possible because there are no major population centers in far northern California and southern Oregon.

In Washington state, 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.

Read more: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/226/story/77324.html

[jmondine]

1. My representative, Jay Inslee, was one of the folks spearheading this effort

[defendandprotect]

2. Great news . . . but we should have had electric cars minimum 20 years ago !!

And -- as I recall the first cars were electric -- !!!

[WriteDown]

3. 15 minutes?

Still too long.

[Sinistrous]

4. Physics is a SOB.

[WriteDown]

5. Exactly!

I mean how much longer do I have to wait for a time machine!