WSJ: "Charging Stations Multiply but Electric Cars are Few"
Some of the comments are latching onto the subsidies issue of course. Most don't have a clue. I posted a few responses with the correct info.
Across the U.S., such equipment is proliferating even though it is unclear whether plug-in cars will prove popular. Walgreen Co. has chargers outside four Texas stores and plans to add more there and in San Francisco, Orlando, Fla., and Washington, D.C. Cracker Barrel Old Country Store Inc. expects to have chargers outside some Tennessee restaurants within months. Murphy Oil USA, a gas-station operator, is testing one in Chattanooga, Tenn., to gauge demand.
Why invest in chargers now? "We wanted to be the first mover," says Menno Enters, Walgreen's director of energy and sustainability. He says people are likely to shop while they recharge.
Michael Farkas, CEO of Miami-based Car Charging Group Inc., which is assembling a nationwide network of chargers in such places as parking garages and retail-store lots, aims to lock in prime locations before others: "The business that we're in today is a land grab."
Charging equipment is popping up largely because of subsidies. As part of a $5 billion federal program to subsidize development of electric vehicles and battery technology, the U.S. Energy Department over the past two years provided about $130 million for two pilot projects that help pay for chargers at homes, offices and public locations.
Some of the comments are latching onto the subsidies issue of course. Most don't have a clue. I posted a few responses with the correct info.