Monday 22 November 2010

Don’t all Rush out to Buy your All Electric Nissan Leaf / Plug-in Hybrid

Are we green in San Francisco? Yes! …….. but only in name.

Google Gavin Newsom and Electric Cars and you get headlines such as “Recharge America with Electric Cars” and “Mayor Newsom Launches Installation of New CityWide Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure”. How about " San Francisco is committed to making the Bay Area the center for the EV market, creating new jobs, reducing our reliance on foreign oil, and boosting our green economy"

Sounds great. Doesn't it? Surely we must be really well equipped now to drive around in Electric Cars?

Having read headlines such as these, I made my way to the San Francisco Auto Show to look at the latest and greatest that the motor industry had to offer. I have had my eye on the Nissan Leaf as a commuter car for a while and had the opportunity to test drive it this week. The car is great, but for reasons which I wont bore you with (I live in a condo) I wont be able to isntall a charge port at my house – which many who are considering electric cars would probably end up doing.

Of course, it shouldn’t be a problem charging an all electric car in San Francisco now, should it? Given all those headlines, I mean, there must be 100s of charging stations dotted all around the city?

UM.

So how do you actually find out where the charging stations are for Electric Cars? Well you go to PG&E’s Website and look! I found the section Electric Vehicles. The page links off to “a list of all publicly accessible electric-vehicle charging stations in California”.

A quick search (Electric Small Inductive / Electric Large Inductive) reveals a grand total of 15 charging locations in the city of San Francisco (see below).

So for those of you who are not able to install a charging port in your own garage (perhaps because you don’t have one), or who are relying on there being charging stations all around the city of San Francisco to augment your car’s charge – you had better talk to your politicians since they don’t seem to be doing much of their own accord in the way of installing charging locations for you ………

Translated: despite all of the hype - there are very few charging stations in San Francisco for your plug-in Electric / Hybrid car.


Appendix

List of Electric Vehicle Charging Stations in San Francisco (Courtesy ofhttp://www.cleancarmaps.com/)

Site Name

Address

Operational Status

Fuel Type Available

St. Mary's Square Garage

433 Kearny Street
San Francisco, CA 94108

Currently Operational

INS
CND

Portsmouth Square Garage

733 Kearny Street
San Francisco, CA 94108

Currently Operational

INS
CND

Sutter Stockton Garage

444 Sutter Street
San Francisco, CA 94108

Partially Operational

INS
CND

Golden Gateway Garage

250 Clay Ave
San Francisco, CA 94111

Currently Operational

INS
CND

5th and Mission Garage

5th and Mission
San Francisco, CA 94103

Partially Operational

INS
CND

Moscone Center Garage

255 Third Street
San Francisco, CA 94103

Currently Operational

INS
CND

Costco - San Francisco

450 10th Street
San Francisco, CA 94103

Currently Operational

INS
CND

Performing Arts Garage

360 Grove Street
San Francisco, CA 94102

Currently Operational

INS
CND

San Francisco Civic Center ( Level 2 )

355 McAllister St
San Francisco, CA 94102

Currently Operational

INS
CND

San Francisco Civic Center (Level 1)

355 McAllister Street
San Francisco, CA 94102

Currently Operational

INS
CND

Ellis O'Farrell Garage

123 O'Farrell St.
San Francisco, CA 94102

Currently Operational

INS

Japan Center Garage

1660 Geary Street
San Francisco, CA 94115

Currently Operational

INS
CND

Lombard Street Garage

2055 Lombard Street
San Francisco, CA 94123

Currently Operational

INS
CND

San Francisco General Hospital

2500 24th Street
San Francisco, CA 94110

Currently Operational

INS
CND

UC San Francisco Medical Center

500 Parnassus Avenue
San Francisco, CA 94122

Not Operational

INS
CND


1 comment:

  1. Hybrids are a fine alternative while EV infrastructure is being built out!

    ReplyDelete