Charging stations for electric cars growing in number (AP/CNN)

[eppur_se_muova]

SEATTLE, Washington (AP) -- Owning an electric vehicle requires more than global-cooling ambitions. It takes guile, planning, sharp vision, a silver tongue -- and a 50-foot extension cord.

Steve Bernheim knows accessible outlets like a firefighter knows hydrants. He has to -- his Corbin Sparrow runs only 25 miles on a charge.

"You do guerrilla charging where you locate these plugs," said Bernheim, an attorney who lives in the Seattle suburb of Edmonds. "I'm an expert at finding them."

While California has more than 500 public charging stations at parks, malls and grocery stores to serve electric vehicles that rolled out in the last decade, the network is still thin across the rest of the country, forcing drivers like Bernheim to get creative.

That may change as charging stations crop up in San Jose, Seattle and Portland to serve early adopters and pave the way for a new breed of mass market plug-in cars.
***
more: http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/10/20/electric.cars.ap/index.html

[TorxPower]

1. Compatibility?

I was reading today about the Better Place network grid of charge spots in Australia... are all these charging spots going to be compatible? Is there some kind of standard? It would suck if they all end up as competitors like cell phone networks.

[wtmusic]

2. Not a lot of compatibility now

Large paddle inductive, small paddle inductive, AVC, and good old 110V residential duplex, as well as some other fringe connectors.

Better Place connectors will fit BP cars, and because their business model requires you buy electricity from them don't expect a lot of compatibility with existing stations.

[wtmusic]

3. Great resource - EV chargers by region

http://www.evchargernews.com/#regions

[eppur_se_muova]

4. Thanks! nt