Free electric car charging in San Francisco until 2013

San Francisco will provide free electric car charging in various parts around the city, at least until 2013. Not only will select city-owned parking garages offer this service, the San Francisco International Airport will also offer a similar service, according to Mayor Ed Lee’s office today. There will be nearly 90 new plug-ins that are specially designed to deliver a “top-off” supplement for home chargers of electric car owners, who currently form a tiny fraction of San Francisco’s total traffic. 180 minutes of staying plugged in is equivalent to 80% of power to the battery of a Nissan Leaf, double the amount of charging time and you end up with a full “tank”, so to speak.

Installation will commence from June onwards, with the range of stations being in place before 2011 is over. The Mayor’s Office intends for range anxiety to be eliminated with such counter measures in place, never mind that newer models are completely dependent on batteries and tend to max out anywhere from 80 to 100 miles later.

It will cost $300,000 in total to implement the new program, but thanks to an amalgamation of federal, state and local grants, enough money has gone around to keep everyone happy. The full list of where these electric car charging stations are available will read as follows :-

• Civic Center garage
• Ellis O’Farrell garage
• Fifth & Mission garage
• General Hospital garage
• Golden Gateway garage
• Japan Center garage
• Lombard garage
• Mission Bartlett garage
• Moscone Center garage
• North Beach garage
• Performing Arts garage
• Pierce Lombard garage
• Polk Bush garage
• Portsmouth Square garage
• SFO garages
• St. Mary’s Square garage
• 1600 Mission Street garage
• Stockton Sutter garage
• Union Square garage
• Vallejo Street garage

Edwin Kee
Categories: Green, Transportation
Tags: charging, charging station, electric vehicle