Seattle getting 2,500 electric car charging stations

Will Seattle be a leader in the electric car "revolution?"

So far, it looks that way. Next year, Seattle will be one of five cities to get 2,500 charging stations under a $100 million federal grant to the Electric Transportation Engineering Corporation (eTec). Consumers who participate will receive a 220-volt charging station in their home.

In addition, Nissan has chosen Seattle as one of a few test markets for the company's new LEAF, an all-electric, zero-emission vehicle. About 600 electric vehicles are estimated to be in King County now, although Seattle has the nation's largest chapter of the Electric Vehicle Association. (Seattlepi.com's John Stang has an earlier story here about the anticipation in Seattle for electric vehicles).

So it was with great enthusiasm on Oct. 23 that 300 people attended a conference hosted by the Discovery Institute's Cascadia Center entitled: "Beyond Oil: The Sustainable Communities Initiative and Clean Cities Conference." Held on Microsoft's campus in Redmond, the conference drew state and federal legislators, transportation planners, techies, engineers, vendors and a few local enviro-heroes now in Washington, D.C., including former King County Executive Ron Sims, now deputy secretary at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Outside were a line of shiny Tesla Roadsters -- the sleek, all-electric sports cars that go for about $109,000. Also on display was Ford's much-anticipated foray into the domestic market -- the all-electric Ford Focus, which will be available domestically in 2011. A local company, Rapid Electric Vehicles, showed off a Ford Escape retro-fitted for electricity.

As the conference got underway, Steve Marshall, a senior fellow with Cascadia Center, a transportation policy research center, asked the audience to think about having "Henry Ford sitting down with Thomas Edison, and maybe Bill Gates coming in to think about what we're going to do for the next hundred years."

The conference reiterated many of the reasons the U.S. needs to shift away from its economic reliance on foreign oil, and carbon-polluting, internal-combustion transportation. But panelists also focused on some of the key challenges ahead and the questions that need to be resolved before mainstreet America is dotted with charging stations where drivers plug in instead of pump.

Some key questions: How do we build up the electric grid so we don't overload at 5 p.m. each day when commuters return to charge up? Where do we put charging stations so they're within a feasible range? Should employers install charging stations at work and if so, who pays for the electricity?

"If we're successful and could move immediately to electric vehicles, we would have huge problem, because there is not enough electricity," said Dave Hill, deputy director of the Idaho National Laboratory.

And how do we ensure the pollution we the electricity we produce to meet the increased demand is produced cleanly?

"Half of the electricity being generated in the U.S. is in the form of coal," Hill said. "Any expansion on the demand on electricity will lead to an expansion on the demand for coal. Unless, we can find out how to deal with that... what we're doing is moving emissions from the tailpipe to the smoke stack."

Most of the Puget Sound's electricity comes cleanly from hydro-power, which is another reason the Seattle area is an ideal location for the electric vehicle experiment. But experts agree that preparing for the future will take a systems-wide approach, involving government, utilities, researchers and the private sector.

At current City Light rates, the Nissan LEAF would clost about $190 to drive 10,000 miles, or just under 2 cents a mile. To drive the same distance in a car that gets 25 miles per gallon -- the 2008 national MPG average -- would cost about $1,100 at $2.76 per gallon, according to earlier estimates from the Mayor's office.

U.S. Rep Jay Inslee, the Bainbridge Island congressman, took a spin in the all-electric Focus and said he hadn't felt that "kind of torque and acceleration since I drove my brother's 404 Dodge in 1967."

"This will be a revolution," Inslee said. "I believe when Hollywood gets around to another remake of the Dukes of Hazzard, it will be with electric cars," he said.

Inslee said he pushed to add $2 billion to the federal stimulus package to get a domestic industry rooted in production of lithium ion batteries, which are the newest generation power source for electric vehicles.

"Think about how pathetic it would be to trade our current addiction to Middle Eastern oil for an addiction to Chinese lithium ion batteries. To replace one addiction for another is not a good investment strategy for growth in the United States," he said.

Seattle, King County, local utilities and private companies are working to get a budding infrastructure ready locally.

Over the years, King County has placed 39 charging stations attransit park-and-rides and motor pools. They're the 110-volt type and take longer to fully charge than the 210-volt plug-ins. Under a "Plug-and-Ride" program, for drivers can reserve a spot to charge their vehicle before they hop on the bus, said Ron Posthuma, assistant director of King County's Department of Transportation.

Four people currently are signed up, mostly with "neighborhood" electric cars that you couldn't take out on the freeway, said Posthuma, who attended the conference.

Next year, as part of a federal grant to the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency's Clean Cities Coalition, the county plans to start installing 210-volt charging stations, which are the kind that you would use to plug in your dryer.

Right now, the county picks up the costs of the electricity, which only amounts to pennies a day because the plug-ins don't charge very quickly. But there might be a point where the county would charge a "reservation fee" to cover the costs. The county can't legally charge the customer directly for electricity because it is not a utility, he said.

King County is working with utilities to find optimum spots for the next wave of charging stations, and is considering places at Northgate Mall, park and rides and the county van-share program's garage at King Street.

The trick will be ensuring there is enough infrastructure to ensure electric vehicles can make it to the next charging station without running out of juice and overcoming "range anxiety," Posthuma said.

"It's kind of the chicken versus the egg thing. You don't put charging stations in before you have the vehicle, but you won't get the vehicles if you don't have the charging stations," he said.