Sonoma County, cities seek charging sites for electric cars

In a move to overcome “range anxiety” among potential buyers of electric cars, Sonoma County and its nine cities are seeking grant funds for a network of up to 200 vehicle recharging stations.

The city-county coalition needs at least $1.5 million to install the stations — essentially specialized power outlets — intended to supply 1,000 electric vehicles to be purchased by the agencies and their employees.

The power hookups, initially located at public buildings and corporation yards, also would be placed at shopping centers, movie theaters and other locations available to the public.

“We want them to be where people go,” said Cordel Stillman, Sonoma County Water Agency capital projects manager. “We are paving the way for the electric car.”

Last month the coalition failed to get a portion of a $100 million nationwide federal grant, but a $5 million Bay Area funding program is looming, and Stillman said the coalition will keep trying to find money.

Four automakers — Chevrolet, Ford, Nissan and Mitsubishi — are planning to roll out electric cars in the next two years, and the charging stations would form the backbone of a new system for delivering juice to batteries that currently are good for only 40 to 100 miles per charge.

“We can't have the electric vehicle chickens waiting for the infrastructure egg,” Nissan spokesman Fred Standish said.

Nissan, which unveiled its electric car named Leaf in early August and plans to begin selling it late next year, is collaborating with the local county-city coalition and five others around the United States aimed at establishing battery recharge stations.

“If there's no way to charge it, it won't do you a whole lot of good,” Standish said. Electric car makers and advocates are well aware of the range limits and the anxiety they may generate in consumers' minds, he said.

The Leaf and an electric Ford Focus, due out in 2011, can go 100 miles on a charge. Mitsubishi's i-MiEV, set for American sales in 2011-12, goes 80 miles. Chevrolet's Volt, coming out next year, goes 40 miles on batteries before a gasoline-powered generator kicks on.

“A lot of people aren't going to buy a car if they can just toodle around Santa Rosa,” said Amy Bolten of the Water Agency.

The Bay Area Air Quality Management District coordinated an application for a $13.9 million federal grant — involving 33 public agencies including Sonoma County — to buy nearly 800 alternative-fuel vehicles and install 1,181 recharging stations around the Bay Area.

But the Bay Area project was not included in the U.S. Department of Energy's award of $99.8 million last month to install 2,500 charging stations in five other areas, including San Diego and Seattle.

The Water Agency operates two Zap electric trucks and nine Toyota Priuses converted to plug-in hybrids, charging them from the rooftop solar power system at its headquarters in Windsor.

The city of Santa Rosa, which has gasoline, diesel, propane, natural gas and hybrid power in its 1,050-vehicle fleet, has also leased a few electric Ford Rangers and Toyota RAV4s and wants to get more, fleet superintendent Jon Merian said.

Improved battery technology and longer range makes electric vehicles “more practical and more attractive to us,” he said.

The city has charging stations at its corporation yard.

Sonoma County, which operates a fleet of 1,400 vehicles, is considering buying as many as 50 electric cars. There's also plenty of interest among water agency employees in buying electric cars, Bolten said.

Nissan intends to pitch the county and city agencies on buying its electric car, but Stillman said all government purchases must involve competitive bidding.

He personally had a 1958 Volkswagen converted to electric power, but its 15-mile range makes it strictly an “around town” car.

The coalition is lobbying major employers, like Agilent and Medtronic, to install charging stations so their employees can go electric, Stillman said.

Businesses like Starbucks might benefit from installing chargers, as well, Nissan's Standish said. A 440-volt charger could replenish the Leaf's batteries in less than half an hour, while the driver takes a coffee break, he said.

You can reach Staff Writer Guy Kovner at 521-5457 or guy.kovner@pressdemocrat.com.