Charge your car!

Cities and countries around the world are partnering with private plug-in providers to create networks of charging and battery exchange stations to cater to electric vehicles. Strong political leadership on the issue seems to be a commonality in locations of future charging stations.

The cities of San Francisco, Oakland and San Jose make up the most known U.S. area with plans to install such a network. Better Place, a California company with plans to build electric car infrastructure in Australia, Denmark, Israel and the U.S., is planning a $1 billion system for the bay area by 2012, according to CNET.com.

Better Place will lease out batteries and operate recharging stations. At these stations drivers will have the option to plug their car in for a quick jolt or switch out their drained battery for a fully charged replacement.  To get a full charge a car needs to be plugged in from three to five hours. The driving range of an electric car range from 125 to 200 miles making a long road trip not doable in one shot. This is why Better Place will use a leased battery option so drivers can just stop in for a new battery instead of a five hour rest stop.

On the other side of the Atlantic, Portugal’s Prime Minister Jose Socrates has big green plans for the country. “By 2011, Socrates’ Socialist administration wants 1,300 stations around the country where environment-friendly motorists can plug-in their electric cars as part of a drive to ‘liberate Portugal from its dependency on foreign oil,’” reported GlobalPost.com.  It looks like strong political leadership is the way to get this infrastructure built. Bay area mayors also promised to implement policy to “support companies and consumers adopting electric cars.”

Looks like regional politicians have the power to bring electric car infrastructure to their localities. Not saying a nationwide smart grid would hurt anything!

And the news from Michigan…Bay City plugged in its first e-car today. All the cool kids are doin it!

Elizabeth Ulion is a graduate student at Northwestern University. Wants this but is rolling her eyes at this headline: Nissan’s greener-than-chlorophyll EV: The Leaf. Ugh.

Photo courtesy of Frankh/Flickr.