The Charge Across Town Campaign
Over the past decade, the automotive industry has undergone a monumental shift from 100% petroleum-powered vehicles to cleaner more fuel-efficient and hybrid cars. Driven by a myriad of issues – the cost of gasoline at the pump, health concerns over dirtier air, the advent of peak oil, environmental concerns (cars are 2/3 of ALL carbon emissions), and many personal reasons for driving alternative fuel vehicles – consumers are pushing for safe, “green”, and affordable cars. Plus, cars powered by electricity and hydrogen are fun to drive!
In the coming year, dozens of electric cars and plug-in hybrids will be available to consumers in the US. Every major car manufacturer, along with many entrepreneurial startups, will bring to market “the future” of the transportation sector – electric, affordable, fuel-efficient, and up to 100+ MPG vehicles. America will start to withdraw from its petroleum addiction and set the course towards a cleaner, greener transportation future. And consumers will have stylish, powerful, safe and fun cars to drive with zero emissions!
The revolution starts here
The San Francisco Bay Area and Silicon Valley will be the epicenter for EV adoption. Charge Across Town is an educational campaign to get citizens and businesses involved in the new transportation revolution. The campaign, launched in San Francisco in Fall 2012, will move to Silicon Valley in 2013 and will continue to address consumer and business issues:
For consumers:
- How long will it take to charge my car?
- Can I get across the San Mateo Bridge without running out of charge?
- Can I commute to my job in the city and get back home to Silicon Valley?
- Where are the charging stations in Palo Alto?
- I want to buy an EV but I don’t have a place to charge it?
- How do I work with my employer to put a charging station on campus?
- I don’t want to own an EV – can I just drive one occasionally?
- Can I charge my car off the solar panels on my roof?
- How much is this all going to cost?
For businesses:
- Why should my business care about electric vehicles?
- How do I get EV charging stations installed in my building?
- Isn’t it the city’s responsibility to install them?
- How can EV readiness help incentivize my employees?
- Will EV chargers cost my business money and who pays for all the electricity?
- Do ZipCar and City Car Share have EVs?
San Francisco’s EV Week
San Francisco’s first ever “EV Week” was held September 17-19, kicked off by Mayor Ed Lee, and hosted over a dozen exhibitors and sponsors including:
- An electric and plug-in hybrid vehicle showcase, with hands-on demonstrations of all the major cars on the market,
- “Drive-arounds” for consumers to experience the cars, and the fun,
- Partner organizations such as City Car Share highlighting their electric fleet.
Who was there?
Coda, Ford, Nissan, Honda, Zipcar, Toyota, Tesla, Fisker, BMW DriveNow, Getaround, Schneider-Electric, SunPower and PG&E
along with…
sfenvironment.org
Business Council on Climate Change (BC3)
City CarShare
What Local Businesses Were Involved?
TRI Commercial
McGuire Real Estate
Shorenstein Realty
Solar Marketing Group
EV Charging Pros
Check out our video from last year and get ready for a bigger and better event in 2013!