Nissan-Seattle Pact Secures Both Ends of a West Coast 'Electric Highway'
By John O'Dell April 28, 2009
Seattle has joined to the growing list of U.S. localities partnering with the Renault-Nissan Alliance to promote development of an electric vehicle charging network in advance of Nissan's introduction next year of a 5-passenger electric sedan.
The automakers and Seattle city officials announced their deal about a minute ago, Seattle Mayor Greg Nickles saying his city will develop plans to help streamline installation of an EV charging network. Among other things, that means making sure zoning codes and safety and construction permit policies are adapted to facilitate public charging stations.
Nissan and the city also will cooperate on deployment, operation and maintenance of the chargers, and Nissan has committed to make a number of its EVs available in and around the Seattle metropolitan area (there won't be a blanket nationwide launch, as is usual with conventional internal combustion engine vehicles: the Nissan electric vehicles will be allotted to dealerships in areas where charging systems exist).
"Nissan and the city of Seattle share in the belief that electric vehicles offer one of the best solutions to reducing CO2 emissions," said Dominique Thormann, senior vice president of administration and finance for Nissan North America.
Nissan, through the Renault-Nissan alliance, has entered into similar EV infrastructure development pacts on the West Coast with the state of Oregon and, in California, the county of Sonoma and city of San Diego.
The areas are too far apart to create an "electric highway" that would enable EV drivers to traverse the length of the U.S. West Coast without worrying about finding public charging stations, but with San Diego and Seattle on board, both ends are covered and Nissan is working on filling in the gaps with new charging system development pacts excpeted to be announced periodically in coming months.
The alliance (it's actually all Nissan in the U.S., but the deals are doen in the name of both companies) also has signed agreements with the state of Tennessee and the regional government associations representing the Phoenix and Tucson metropolitan areas in Arizona.
In Seattle, where hydroelectric power makes the city's electric utility carbon-neutral - the first public utility in the world to be able to make that claim - Nickels has set a goal of using clean, green electricity to help power city's transportation system.
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Diablo Dam on the Skagit River is part of Seattle's hydroelectric system.
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Outside of the U.S., the Renault-Nissan Alliance has begun initiatives in Kanagawa Prefecture and Yokohama in Japan, and in Israel, Denmark, Portugal, Monaco, the UK, France, Switzerland, Ireland, China and Hong Kong.
John O'Dell, Senior Editor
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