Renault-Nissan Alliance Adds Phoenix Region To Growing EV Charger Program
By John O'Dell April 15, 2009
There are those who maintain that electric vehicles need a public charging infrastructure like fish need bicycles - that wall plugs already available in homes, apartments, stores and office buildings will suffice.
Nissan and its French partner, Renault, aren't part of that minimalist crowd, though, and see the value of public chargers for travelers and those who don't have easy access to a wall plug for their cars.
So the Renault-Nissan Alliance is aggressively pursuing compacts with various government and private entities to get public charging systems underway in advance of Nissan Motor Co.'s planned launch next year of a rechargeable electric car.
The latest to sign on to the program, and the sixth in the U.S., is the private-public partnership of the Maricopa Association of Governments, which represents communities in the Phoenix, Ariz., area, and Ecotality, a Phoenix-area electric transportation and power storage company.
The alliance is scheduled to announce the deal in Phoenix Thursday morning.
As have previous arrangements - and this is the second in Arizona following the announcement last month of a pack with the regional government group representing the Tucson area - the deal calls for the region's governmental agencies to promote and assist in "the development, operation and maintenance " of a public electric vehicle charging network.
That typically is done by encouraging zoning and permit policies that allow installation of chargers on public and private properties.
Ecotality, which also is a partner in the Tucson-area program, will assist in installation of the EV chargers and coordination of various government policies affecting EV charging systems, while Nissan (Renault may be a partner but it doesn't operate as a car retailer in the U.S.) will provide electric vehicles for sale or lease in the area and will work with the other partners to install and maintain the charging station system.
In addition to its Arizona agreements, the Renault-Nissan Alliance has executed EV charger development and electric vehicle promotion pacts with the states of Tennessee and Oregon and, in California, Sonoma County and the City of San Diego.
The alliance also has EV program development agreements in Israel, Denmark, Portugal, Monaco and Japan.
Nissan has said it will launch a moderately-priced electric car for sale in select areas of the U.S. next year, with global EV sales to follow in 2012.
John O'Dell, Senior Editor
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