Last week it was reported that San Diego Gas & Electric was planning to install 3,500 Level 2 charging stations in its service areas. The company has also been working on a program called “ChargePoints” which will allow customers who have purchased electric cars or plug-in hybrids to charge their vehicles at the company’s more than 100 public and However, now an editorial in the Los Angeles Times asks “who should pay for and own the fuelling centres of the future?” The main point of the article is: will utility customers who don’t use electric vehicles really be happy to pay for charging stations they don’t use? Federal funding for such charging stations “is now used up, and it's not likely to come back” and with different automakers taking different tacks (Tesla pay for their own charging stations, while GM “have no publicised plans to contribute to charging stations, either locally or nationally”) it will be interesting to see how utilities tackle this new and emerging problem.
Last week it was reported that San Diego Gas & Electric was planning to install 3,500 Level 2 charging stations in its service areas. The news was widely welcomed as many of the charging points are planned to go into apartment buildings and other traditionally under-served areas. However, now an editorial in the Los Angeles Times asks “who should pay for and own the fuelling centres of the future?” The main point of the article is: will utility customers who don’t use electric vehicles really be happy to pay for charging stations they don’t use? Federal funding for such charging stations “is now used up, and it's not likely to come back” and with different automakers taking different tacks (Tesla pay for their own charging stations, while GM “have no publicised plans to contribute to charging stations, either locally or nationally”) it will be interesting to see how utilities tackle this new and emerging problem.