NY Times article on Bay Area and EVs

[Arnold Panz]

Cities Prepare for Life With the Electric Car

It's worth reading the whole thing.

Much of the attention on electric cars has been on the vehicles’ design, cost and performance. But success or failure could turn on more mundane matters, like the time it takes car buyers to navigate a municipal bureaucracy to have charging stations installed in their homes.

When the president of the California Public Utilities Commission, Michael R. Peevey, leased an electric Mini Cooper, he said, it took six weeks of visits by installers and inspectors before he could plug in his new car at home.

“It was really drawn out and frustrating and certainly is not workable on a mass basis,” Mr. Peevey said.

Such issues are being hashed out here first. The San Francisco area is home not only to a population of early technology adopters but to companies like Coulomb Technologies and Better Place that are developing the networks and software to allow utilities to manage how cars are charged.

Tesla Motors, a Silicon Valley company that makes electric cars, says it has already sold 150 of its $109,000 Roadsters in the Bay Area. One customer bought the sleek sports car on the spot after a test drive.

“We asked him how he heard of Tesla and why he bought the car,” said Rachel Konrad, a Tesla spokeswoman. “He said, ‘Well, three other guys on my block have them.’ ”

 

[mpt]

I think the issue of charger install is already sorted. In NJ, my MINI E arrived and for a month I had to charge it on 110v.

Within days of the electrician being engaged to install the 50A wall charger permits were issued, it was on the wall and inspected.

All of the details of the permit were handled by the electrician who saw no resistance from the town.

It was not his first wall charger though.