Green Options » Electric Vehicle Infrastructure

Portland Lands Major Upgrade to Electric Vehicle Infrastructure

Sam Adams — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 22:47:10 +0000

For a city with so many amazing trees, Portland is getting ready to add a bunch of new LEAFs to our streets.

No, that’s not a typo. I’m talking about the LEAF, Nissan’s just-unveiled electric vehicle, which is set to hit dealerships in the fall of 2010. In our quest to be the nation’s leader in electric vehicle infrastructure, usage and development, the Portland region took a big step forward today with the announcement that Nissan and eTec selected Oregon as one of five test markets for the largest deployment of EV’s and the associated charging station network in American history.

Vancouver May Require Condos to Install Electric Vehicle Charging Stations

Joanna Schroeder — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 23:30:54 +0000

In its self proclaimed quest to become “the world’s greenest city” Vancouver is considering adopting legislation that would require any new multi-family dwellings (condos) to have electric vehicle charging stations. Should this pass, Vancouver would be the first city in Canada to have such a policy. Vancouver already requires one and two dwelling homes to have plug-in infrastructure.

In a city press release issued yesterday, Mayor Gregor Robertson commented, “Electric vehicles are being increasingly adopted around the world, and we need to be leaders in supporting them.”

Robertson also noted, “Making our city friendly for electric vehicle infrastrucure is a major step towards becoming the world’s greenest city.”

Peter Trepp Becomes First Person in US to Own All Electric MINI E

Joanna Schroeder — Fri, 29 May 2009 05:38:52 +0000

The BMW mini coups took the U.S. by storm in part, due to its great gas mileage. Well, now BMW has launched the MINI E, an all electric, zero emissions car. Peter Trepp of Pacific Palisades has become the first consumer in the country to drive the car. He will have it for one year as part of a one-year field study. Additional consumers in New York, LA and New Jersey will also be taking ownership of their MINI E by the end of June.

I’m only slightly miffed that I wasn’t selected to test-drive the car for a year but I’ll get over it. In the meantime, the rest of us can follow Peter through his blog “Plugged-In With Peter’s MINI E,” which can be viewed at http://www.petersminie.blogspot.com/. Yes, his blog is a marketing tool but I can’t resist and I will be following him. Maybe we’ll even be able to get him to write a special piece for us at Gas 2.0.