San Francisco Offers Free Charging For EVs Through 2013

One of the things that electric vehicle owners need to plan for is recharging their vehicles while on the go. The EV has a limited range and if a driver has a full day of errands and other things to take care of finding a charging station is paramount to a day that doesn't involve a tow truck ride home. In many cities, there are EV charging stations in use, but those stations require money to use in many cases. San Francisco has announced that it will be offering free EV charging.

The free charging will be offered thought the end of 2013. The announcement came this week from San Francisco mayor Ed Lee's office. The free charging station will only be found in city owned parking garages. That will mean that drivers that plug into EV charging station owned by other companies may still have to pay for topping of batteries. The charging stations the city owns are designed to top off an EV when on the go.

How much charge and drive time the EV owner will be able to get from the charging stations really depends on the EV. A Nissan Leaf for instance can fully charge from the city tap in about six hours. A long day at the mall could see the Leaf owner with a full battery ready to drive when they come out. Installation on the new city charging network is set to start next month with all of the charging stations to be installed by the end of the year. The project for installation is costing the city $300,000 and is funded by federal, state, and local grants.

[via SFexaminer]