By June 2012, Castro said, he expects to have 40 charging stations installed throughout Boulder. Planned locations include the Boulder Public Library, the Pearl Street Mall, the Boulder County Courthouse, the Boulder Municipal Building and city-owned parking garages downtown.
Half of the stations will service city-owned electric vehicles, while the other half will be available to the public to charge their vehicles — for a fee.
"The city is not looking to offer it for free," Castro said of the service. "We’re looking at a third party to operate and maintain the system."
Castro said stations would probably require users to pay for an electronic key that would turn on the plug at a parking spot.
Because of state law, the city cannot resell electricity directly to drivers. So a private company would likely have to charge a "membership" fee for drivers to stop and top off batteries.
Developing the charging stations is part of "Project Get Ready," a collaborative effort between Boulder, Denver, the Rocky Mountain Institute, the University of Colorado and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory .
The coalition is working to accelerate the integration of plug-in vehicles and develop regional charging stations. According to the group’s website, projectgetready.com, the coalition has identified about 100 locations as "high-priority" sites for vehicle charging stations across the state.
Boulder has $500,000 to devote to that effort, thanks to a federal grant secured with the help of U.S. Rep. Jared Polis, a Boulder Democrat.
Developing the charging stations is part of "Project Get Ready," a collaborative effort between Boulder, Denver, the Rocky Mountain Institute, the University of Colorado and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory.
The coalition is working to accelerate the integration of plug-in vehicles and develop regional charging stations. According to the group’s website, projectgetready.com, the coalition has identified about 100 locations as "high-priority" sites for vehicle charging stations across the state.
Boulder has $500,000 to devote to that effort, thanks to a federal grant that was secured with the help of Boulder Congressman Jared Polis.
Castro explained that the city has been hanging onto the money because there haven’t been many electric cars available to consumers yet. An industry official said there are an estimated 3,000 electric vehicles in the entire country.
Castro said the Rocky Mountain region has been slow to get electric cars because manufacturers are still working out kinks with technology that doesn’t do well in cold, high-altitude environments.
But that could soon begin to change.
Ford eyes Boulder
Castro said the city is working with officials at Ford to make its electric vehicles available at area dealerships.
"We have been talking with Ford about getting cars here," Castro said. "We’d love to have Ford bring in the Ford Focus EV here in late December. They said they would."
Mike Tinsky, Ford’s manager of sustainability activities, said Boulder is a "leader" in the field of preparing for the electric-vehicle revolution.
"We’re looking forward to getting some vehicles into that market," he said, adding that Boulder-area showrooms could receive electric cars by the end of the year.
Ford has plans to release five new electric car models by 2013, starting with the 2012 Focus Electric. That car will come with a 100-kilowatt electric motor that can be charged in four hours.
"You can go almost 100 miles on $1.80" worth of electricity, Tinsky said.
He said Boulder’s decision to start with 40 charging stations is on target for a city of its size. He also applauded the city’s efforts to cut down on the amount of time it takes to apply for a permit to install charging stations in homes.
"Boulder is well on their way," Tinsky said.
‘It’s really fun’
Jeremiah Watson, the new-car manager at Freeway Ford in Denver, said the company has no idea when — or how many — of the new electric models it might get for its Denver or Longmont locations.
"I’ve only heard kind of rumors at this point, and I’ve heard at Christmas time," he said.
Watson said he hopes Ford releases enough vehicles to meet customer demand, which he guessed would be intense.
"We’ll take as many as they can give us," he said. "If they gave us 100, I would take 100."
One of the handful of people in Boulder who has experience driving a plug-in car is Beverly Gholson.
Gholson was selected to participate in a pilot study being sponsored by CU, Toyota, Xcel Energy and NREL to test a prototype model of a plug-in Prius hybrid.
She received one of the test cars in April, after Xcel installed a special meter in her garage to monitor her charging habits. The car is a modified Prius, which has a plug-in battery pack as well as a hybrid gasoline-electric engine.
"It’s really fun," she said. "I’ve gone over 1,000 miles."
The car costs about as much to charge as running the air conditioner, she said, but she makes a point to only plug it in during off-peak hours — when electricity is cheaper.
While the car can travel about 13 miles on a fully charged battery before the gas engine kicks in, Gholson said she’s managed to travel the 27 miles from her home in Boulder to Golden without using a drop of gas by coasting along when possible.
Gholson said that, if she ever decides to buy an electric car for herself, she would want the city to have the infrastructure to charge it while she’s running errands.
"I actually would go to places that have the charging stations," she said. "I think it would affect decisions I make if I could get some juice there."
New models, bigger market
Alfalfa’s Market, located at 1651 Broadway, is already aiming to attract customers like Gholson.
The company recently installed two charging stations outside of its café, which provide room to charge up to four vehicles at a time. The stations will be used to charge the company’s forthcoming electric delivery van, and offers free charging to customers.
The station charged up the Bolder Boulder’s all-electric Nissan LEAF pace car just before the race, Alfalfa’s spokeswoman Sonja Tuitele said.
Tuitele said the company knows there aren’t a lot of electric vehicles on the streets now, but it expects that to change over the next 18 months as more affordable electric cars hit the market.
In addition to Ford’s new lineup of electric models, Toyota plans to release the Toyota RAV4 EV in 2012. The RAV4 will run on a lithium-ion battery pack and is expected to run 100 miles on a single charge.
Heath Urie, www.denverpost.com/
