Where can I charge my electric car?

Written by Bryan Johannsen

One of the concerns with pure electric vehicles is how to fill them up when the "tank" runs out. The obvious answer is "in your garage" but not everyone has a garage and isn't always at home when they need to refuel.

The gas station is ubuitous in the US, there are places you can find four stations on the four corners of an intersection. The introduction of both pure electrics and plug in hybrids is slowly but surely creating the demand for charging stations to fuel these vehicles.

Unlike a traditional car or truck an electric needs to be stationary for at least a few hours to be refueled so the gas station model isn't going to work. The charging stations need to be where you park your car. McDonald's began a charging station program with it's store in Cary, NC and thanks to Coulumb Technologies the city of San Jose, New Mexico is one of the first US cities to add a charging station infrastructure.

Many other cities are currently testing the impact of charging stations on their existing infrastructure by installing limited numbers of them or pushing legislation to get them installed. As more cities get them installed for public use rather than just testing we'll announce them to keep you up to date.

One remaining issue is payment. A cashier standing at every pole with a plug on it just isn't going to work so some sort of model must be settled on. Whether that is a subscription based payment model or a credit card reader on every station is yet to be seen but running in to pick a bag of chips and put 10 dollars on pump five are over when it comes to filling an electric car.

Realistically the garage is still where you're going to be charging your electric car for the time being but as more and more stations come online you'll soon be able to fill up while you stop off to run errands, grab a bite to eat or go to work.

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