Los Angeles to Have 500 Public EV Charging Stations by End of 2011, Mayor Says
By Scott Doggett December 1, 2009
Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa announced today that the city, Southern California Edison and the Los Angeles Department of Water & Power have agreed to provide a total of 500 public charging stations for electric vehicles in and around L.A. by the end of 2011.
Speaking this morning before Bloomberg LP's Car & Fuels conference in Los Angeles, the major said his office, Edison and the LADWP will invest a total of $10 million in a program that calls for upgrading 400 existing charging stations that were installed a decade ago and the building of 100 new stations.
Villaraigosa vowed that none of the stations would be more than 10 miles from another, and he said that a $2,000 incentive will be offered to L.A. residents to install an electric-vehicle charging station at their homes.
There will be additional incentives, the mayor said, including preferred parking for drivers of electric vehicles.
The alternative-fuel industry can create jobs, as well as ideas that lead to patents, Villaraigosa said, noting that Los Angeles already has the largest fleet of alternative-fuel vehicles west of the Mississippi, including 99 percent of its buses.
"Southern California is the epicenter of alternative fuels," the mayor said.
Electric-car user groups will be consulted on shaping the region's plans, he said.
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