Sparking a green revolution

San Francisco bids for ‘electric car capital’ with recharging infrastructure
Convulsions among the dinosaurs of the motor industry are so severe that it’s hard to pick likely survivors, let alone winners. But R&D on innovative lower-carbon models looks like money well spent. Without something like the plug-in electric Chevrolet Volt due to launch within two years, the likes of GM would have even less to justify their massive bail out.

Good timing, then, for the San Francisco Bay Area to launch a nine-point plan to become the electric car capital of the world. A crucial hurdle is convincing people that there’ll be enough charging points around to keep their batteries topped up. So companies will get incentives for putting charging points in their car parks, while for government buildings it will be made obligatory. The cars should start to proliferate in 2012.

California’s governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has put his weight behind it, but the mayors of San Francisco, San José and Oakland are prime movers in the plan. Also involved is locally based entrepreneur Shai Agassi’s company Better Place, which reckons on investing $1 billion. And the go-ahead Bay Area mayors should be well aware that they aren’t alone in the race. Agassi has already teamed up with the Renault-Nissan Alliance (whose CEO Carlos Ghosn says categorically that the future of the urban car is electric) on projects for cars running on swappable battery packs in Israel, Denmark and elsewhere [see ‘Traffic goes electric green’].

Renault-Nissan is also working on ambitious plans for a nationwide electric car-charging network in France, where President Sarkozy is an enthusiastic supporter. Closer to home, it has infrastructure development partnerships with the state of Oregon and power company Portland General Electric, as well as projects with Sonoma County, in northern California, and with the state of Tennessee. – Roger East

4 January 2009

Roger East

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