EV Strategic Council formed
Just last week the Bay Area EV Strategic Council debuted, with the support of the Mayors of Berkeley, Oakland, San Francisco, and San Jose. Members also include a broad array of civic and community organizations along with a number of municipal agencies. This broad support will hopefully provide traction to the ambitious goals outlined in the development of an electric vehicle (EV) infrastructure in the Bay Area.
Funding announced includes $1.5 million from the California Energy Commission to install 300+ publicly available EV charging locations, including 19 DC fast chargers. Total funding for this project will include an additional $2.5 million in local public and private funds. In addition to this infrastructure development, funding was announced for regional EV Strategic Plans encompassing 12 counties, a communications plan to support the area to become “EV Ready”, and an EV car sharing pilot program. This last program will be run by the Bay Area Air Quality Management District and will include the purchase of 10 plug-in Toyota Prii for use in the City CarShare program.
The Bay Area seems to be actually getting things done as the San Francisco International Airport has a number of charging docks located throughout several parking garage locations, and a number of other charging stations have already been deployed in the region. A quick look at the linked map will show that several regions of the country are making some headway in the installation of J1772 capable equipment. As more manufacturers bring electric vehicles to market, these charge points will provide peace of mind to those that are still unsure of their needs, and opportunity charging capabilities to those that may be able to take advantage of them.