Electric vehicle owners seeing more charging stations on the road
Jun 12, 2013, 5:00 AM | Updated: 5:00 am
PHOENIX — It’s been a relatively short time since the Nissan LEAF electric car first hit the market. Initially, some consumers were a bit concerned about the availability of charging stations and getting left stranded on the road.
Their concern was rightfully justified. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, in 2011 there were only 5,160 public charging stations across the nation, with only 40 in Arizona.
Fast forward to 2013: The U.S. Department of Energy reports, to date, there are 14,276 stations nationwide, including 731 in Arizona.
“We really are creating a very robust ecosystem and rich infrastructure out there for EV (electric vehicle) charge-ups today,” said Collin Read, vice president of corporate development for ECOtality, which is responsible for most of the charging stations in the country.
“What we’ve tried to do is make sure that we put commercially available, publicly available chargers where people work, shop, eat and play,” Read added.
ECOtality has installed roughly 12,000 chargers across the country which have serviced more than 100,000 electric vehicles.
