Mayor of San Francisco Wants an Influx of Electric Cars
May 15, 2008
Gavin Newsom, Mayor of San Francisco, has been talking to Project Better Place about setting up a network of recharging stations around the city that would allow the adoption of electric cars in the Bay area.
Project Better Place, a Silicon Valley start-up, is already working on wiring parts of Denmark and all of Israel to pave the way for widespread adoption of cars that run on rechargeable electric batteries instead of the traditional internal combustion engines. This would help drivers drastically reduce their carbon footprint.
For both of their other project, Renault has agreed to build the electric cars that can be recharged a these road side stations. Just last week, Renault unveiled their new battery powered sedan with a range of 125 miles.
In many ways San Francisco is an ideal market to test out the new electric cars in the US. The city layout is very compact and most commuters travel less than 50 miles a day so the range of an electric car is plenty for them. As well, the city gets most of its energy from relatively clean sources, including nuclear, natural gas, and renewable projects such as wind and geothermal. However, anyone that knows politics in San Francisco knows that this is still far from a done deal.
Outside of San Francisco, this project could have a big impact as other cities follow their lead to improve their green image and reduce their carbon footprint. As well, the increased demand for electric cars should get more and more of the big manufacturers to start producing fully electric vehicles.
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