What's Wrong With This Picture: The State Of The EV Infrastructure Edition
Good news! Google Maps will now point you to the nearest “electric car charging station” if you search for same, reports CR.
[Google] is working with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, which is developing a database of available charging stations (known as EVSEs, or electric vehicle supply equipment) around the United States. Installers of EVSEs have the option of having their stations displayed as public. When we were charging the Nissan Leaf at our facility, not a public venue, our chargers showed up on the Leaf’s navigation system; The navi in the Leaf is designed to remember sites at which it had been charged.
The bad news? Well, just look at that map. Unless you live in California, you don’t need Google to tell you where the nearest charging station is, you need a clairvoyant to tell you where one might someday be built. If you’re still struggling to understand why EVs need to be tested on a local level before the federal government spends more money subsidizing them on a national level, look no further.
[UPDATE: The screen grab above is not comprehensive. Surf over Google Maps for a closer look at EV charging stations in your area]
More by Edward Niedermeyer
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Here's a great article about what a joke the Volt is: http://www.forbes.com/2011/03/16/chevy-volt-ayn-rand-opinions-patrick-michaels.html
I understand that the mayor of Port Orchard, Washington, has worked to set up such a charging station there. Perhaps one of the less than 1000 Nissan Leafs that will be sold in the US this year (at the current rate of sales) will need it.
@ Mike Kelly. The only joke in that article is the yahoo that wrote it. What a piece of trash filled with inaccuracies. But hey, keep drinking the cool aid, seems you like the way it tastes.
I can't see EV's catching on anytime soon. Nobody who works for a living will pay the kind of money they are asking for a Volt, even with the massive federal subsidy on it. I suppose the feds will prop up sales by buying tons of them for bureaucrats to putt around in, but I doubt the public will fall in love with cars that are too expensive, won't go very far on battery power, and that either won't keep you warm or run down fast trying to. Like the Priuses before them, some Volts will of course be snapped up by pompous yuppies trying to out-do their snooty neighbors.