Many Americans already have "electric car stations". I like to call mine "my garage". It has an outlet on the wall.

This should provide the bulk of charging needs but the implementation of opportunity charging stations will go a long way in implementing the electric car technologies.

As an aside, I have watched from my office the complete rebuild of a sizeable parking lot. They tore out all of the old pavement, added base and put down new pavement. I can't help but think of what a lost opportunity to add electric charging stations and encourage the employees to utilize electric car technology. It makes even more sense to use electric vehicles here in that Newport is a town on Aquidneck Island where the two main roads have speed limits of 35 and 45 mph.

I, as well as others have been saying the key to electric cars is "gas stations" which simply swap out used batteries for freshly charged ones. Granted you need a technician that isn't going to be stupid enough to short the batteries accidently, and there needs to be some sort of standardization in battery compartment sizes but I think it's possible. Besides it'd be better than seeing all the scooters the locals drive around on and think themselves kings of the road

Yeah, I read this.

I blame Arnold. California should have been FIRST.

Well, Better Place will be setting the standard now and the cars that will be built will follow it.

Hopefully this will speed things along EV-wise.

What?! There are about public 2,500 chargers in CA today. And of course many more private ones (everybody who owns an EV - in general - has a charger at home).

Not sure I understand how Hawaii is the first. But hey - all the power to the wonderful island state.

I think many people would be surprised at just how common regular electric outlets are in parking garages. I have found outlets very often on lamp posts, in parking lots, on the exterior walls of many buildings, etc.

Just about the only thing needed is a nice sign that says, "EV Parking Only". $20 for a neat sign and you have an instant "electric car station".
Isn't this much easier and cheaper than building the "Hydrogen Highway"?

The Fry's in my town also has two parking spots reserved for "Electric Vehicles Only". I've seen Priuses parked there, and I've parked there myself.

But I've also seen regular cars parked there as well. When I asked the manager about this, he said the sign doesn't mean anything and in practice anybody could park there. The parking lot design was carried over from the Fry's in California, so they just kept the sign but really don't enforce it.

Besides, there ain't no EVs in North Texas nohow. Ya'll hear?

Yes, it is. And seeing those signs on prime parking spots would go a long way to putting the idea of owning an EV into a lot of people's heads.

I think there should be "hybrid only" signs for parking spots as well. Not just for those with HOV stickers but for TRUE hybrids.

How hard could it be to convince cities to do this? It's added revenue if you ticket all of the cars that illegally park there.

We have those parking spaces here. Pictures eventually...

Raytheon Company is one of the largest local employers on Aquidneck Island and last year they opened up the front row of their parking lot for "Hybrids Only." These spots had formerally been reserved for employees with 40 or more years of tenure. The older employees have obviously been miffed but the result has been an increase in hybrid cars by other employees. I could see this same preferential treatment being further extended with charging stations and EV parking only in the future.

There's a new mixed-zone residential/shopping center near my house that has parking meters that actually aren't enforced, the collected fees are donated to four charities in the area. The neatest thing is that on every parking meter it says, "Free for Hybrid".

This is definitely a first in North Texas (that I know of). Perhaps charging stations or power plugs for EVs will be available in the future too.

The family who owns this property are well known conservationists and used to use this land to host an annual outdoor sculpture show where artists from all over the country would come and create works made entirely from natural materials. Really, really cool stuff.

They had a lot of say in how this property was to be developed, including the preservation of native plants, trees, creeks, and other natural characteristics. They even mandated that the road leading to the area had to be winding enough to promote slow driving and had to have minimal light pollution!

Things like this are very unusual around here, and I'm not complaining at all. In fact, our choir will be caroling there (in Dickens costumes) for the next two weekends as part of their inaugural Xmas celebration. Should be a lot of fun...

It's marketing.

Put $2.50 on a can of soup and no one will buy it. Mark it 2 for $5.00 and people stock up.

If they put out signs for free or preferred parking for hybrids, people would buy more hybrids. If they had free and preferred parking charging stations for EV only, people would be clamoring to buy one.

This is a major symptom of the Big 3s poor marketing. If they could sell cr@p, they could sell hybrids and EVs. They just didn't want to.

They do.
People are.
They can't.

Ever remember "compact" parking spaces? Those "premium" spaces, ok they really aren't THAT special other than there's a slightly higher density of cars that can use them, but they typically are near the entrance to buildings. Well they still exist, just no one cares anymore, it's a parking spot they can park into (sort of) so they park. Went to the store the other day, crowded lots, saw all the "compact" cars, most were SUVs that literally didn't fit in the spots but they parked anyways.

Who's paying for all of this? Taxpayers I presume.....Sigh.

Wrong as usual, did you even bother to read the article?

I just read it now..... I'm sure that taxpayers are footing some of the bill. Why build these stations for? Don't it take 8 hours to charge up the lil electric car?

Come on Jimmie, get on the trolley! Even if taxpayers were footing some of the bill, they aren't, it would be a very smart investment that would pay back many times over. Any amount of charging helps extend the range.

Scuba, could you send me a link or something to a news article about this so I could have some proof when I suggest it to my company?