Despite several years of economic woes and rapidly expanding debt, a country commits to plug-in electric vehicles and an aggressive roll-out of charging infrastructure. The Republic of Ireland (you were thinking of someplace else, perhaps?) is installing 1,500 public charging stations this year, which puts (more…)

The U.S. Air Force recently announced that its Los Angeles base would be the first federal facility to replace 100 percent of its general purpose fleet with electric vehicles.

This switch will mean all 40 vehicles owned or leased by the base, including passenger sedans, two-ton (more…)

The U.S. Department of Energy announced last week the 16 winning projects in 24 states that will receive funding for projects that support community planning for plug-in electric vehicles and charging infrastructure. The projects won funding as part of the Clean Cities initiative, a competitive program that (more…)

I recently set out to look into all electric car sharing programs, like the one recently started in San Diego by car2go. After a little research into the program – run by a wholly-owned subsidiary of Daimler, stocked with Daimler Smart Fortwo EVs, and using ECOtality (more…)

There is general industry agreement that electric vehicle charging needs to be smart enough to respond to the changing conditions on the grid (to limit the impact on the grid) and to changing prices (to maximize the savings of driving electric). The looming question that will help to shape the (more…)

Last week, I was fortunate to meet with two of the people driving Los Angeles’ transition to plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs). Beth Jines, the Director of Sustainability for the City of Los Angeles, and Sarah Potts, City Director of Los Angeles for the Clinton Climate Initiative, are working together to navigate the (more…)

I want to call readers’ attention to the whole car-sharing phenomenon – particularly as it applies to the deployment of electric vehicles, and this excellent article that tackles some of the issues.

There is no doubt that car-sharing in dense urban environments like Boston and San Francisco is going (more…)

Way back 18 months ago the Department of Energy announced that with its financial support, a company that most people had never heard of would install more than 12,000 electric vehicle chargers in a few select cities across the country. This prompted great interest in EVSE (electric vehicle supply equipment) vendor Ecotality, which as administrator of the program would (more…)

Urbanization in the 21st century is creating a set of new challenges for governance. How will national, state/provincial, and city governments effectively provide vital services to citizens? And as a greater portion of the world’s population gets connected through smart phones and other slick new data-sharing devices, how will people access those services? (more…)

The first Chevrolet Volts, Nissan Leafs, and Smart EDs were delivered in December, but in the annals of history 2011 will be remembered as the year that electric vehicles (EVs) arrived. EVs for sale to consumers will dominate the headlines throughout the year as average Americans begin to recognize EVs as the roll down the road. (more…)