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Why no plans for electric car chargers on Capitol Hill yet? Fed-backed program needs parking garages

With a $115 million grant from the federal government, the Bay Area-based company ECOtality is installing thousands of electric vehicle charging stations across six states. Their Seattle office is seeking parking lot owners interested in having free or heavily subsidized charging stations installed in their lots, but they have yet to have many Capitol Hill businesses calling them.

“Part of the issue is there are not a lot of parking garages,” said ECOtality’s Washington State Sales Manager Dan O’Shea. The company is installing charging stations all over the region, but “central Seattle is obviously very important, and Capitol Hill is very important,” he said.


In order to qualify for the program, the lot must be open to the public for short-term parking. One example of a potential location is the parking lot at the Harvard Market shopping center at Broadway and Pike. The lack of lots like these isn’t necessarily a bad thing but the situation is an example of what can happen when a program designed to speed adoption of new technologies hits the real world. Or, at least, Capitol Hill.

The cost of installation can vary dramatically from lot to lot, but the grant covers $2,250 worth of installation costs per charging station installed and maybe a free charger. For some lots, the grant will cover the entire install cost. Others could get expensive, especially if they need to drill through concrete to run the power cables. ECOtality will give owners a free installation estimate.

“We are offsetting a significant portion of the initial investment,” said O’Shea.

ECOtality has not yet released their rate structure, but users of the stations will pay for the electricity they draw. Owners will pay their power bills like usual, then ECOtality will reimburse them as part of a revenue sharing scheme. Their revenue sharing goal is to make the stations operate without costing the lot owner, said O’Shea.

The stations, made by Blink, have a modern look reminiscent of a giant iPod. At 240 volts, the stations are more powerful than a home power outlet. They should be able to take a Nissan Leaf’s battery from zero to full in six to eight hours. However, the commercial stations they are trying to install are not intended for all-day charging by people looking to fill their batteries. Instead, they are meant to “relieve range anxiety,” said O’Shea. For the Leaf, one hour could get a driver about 11 miles of driving.

Businesses with an electric vehicle fleet may also be able to qualify for a subsidized charging station install. Businesses working with King County VanPool may also be able to qualify if a van is swapped for an electric vehicle. Those interested should email O’Shea for more information.

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rako
rako
13 years ago

Very weird post. I can think of nearly a dozen public covered parking garages in Capitol Hill off the top of my head, from QFC to Group Health to SCCC to Elliott Bay to pretty much every condo and apartment building built in the past 5-10 years. This doesn’t include the dozens of surface parking lots. Zipcar doesn’t seem to have a problem finding public parking lots – they have about 100 permanent parking spots on Capitol Hill.

If there’s one thing that we have in abundance, it’s places to put cars.

car
car
13 years ago

Why do they have parking zone permits if it is so easy to park on Capitol Hill?

Parker
Parker
12 years ago

Many condo associations won’t allow charging stations in their garages because of the significant electrical modifications that are required.

Other parking garages – particularly garages that are not integral to a larger building – were never designed for that sort of electrical load, and would require expensive upgrades.

Plus, once the upgrades are done, who does the parking spot belong to? If you are the entity who paid for the work, you would want it to be your space. But the owners may feel rather strongly that they don’t want to give up one of their spots.

Politics of parking, 101.

rako
rako
12 years ago

@car: I’m talking about plentiful paid parking lots, not about free (or nearly free) street parking.

There’s plenty of pho on Capitol Hill, but if the city was giving it away for free there would be a major free pho shortage.

property guy
property guy
12 years ago

I manage a parking structure on Capitol Hill, and my father in law is prez of the electric car club, so I am interested in this stuff. I proposed getting some electric car chargers installed last summer, and began an investigation, hoping to find some subsidy or program to sweeten the deal. When I discovered the ECOtotality program, I was excited. I went to the website, and answered their questionnaire, and when I was done, I felt like it was a bait and switch. I came to a final screen telling me I must first buy a Nissan Leaf or Chevy Volt. I call bullshit on these guys. It is like their program was designed to fail…have any of you seen the film “Who Killed the Electric Car”? Did these guys give up sellign timeshares?

Librarian
Librarian
12 years ago

So let’s see…. You stumbled onto the wrong website for what you wanted to do, got shot down, and didn’t pursue it any further, and now you are blaming them for your half-a@&ed approach?

Whatever happened to doing real research and maybe picking up the phone? The internet is a great thing, but it doesn’t take the place of actually knowing something about what you are doing.

Eric
Eric
12 years ago

With all of the parking that the 230 Broadway apartments are supposed to have, will there be electric vehicle charging stations there?

Dan
Dan
12 years ago

If any of the people commenting here want follow up, explanation, details, clarification…please follow the link for the contact info and I will be very happy to help you out. We are here to break down barriers and increase adoption of EV’s.