Los Altos Brings Electric Vehicle Charging Stations to Downtown
LOS ALTOS BRINGS ELECTRIC VEHICLE CHARGING STATIONS TO DOWNTOWN
Los Altos, Calif. – February 15, 2013 – The City of Los Altos will soon be plugged into the nation’s growing Electric Vehicle (EV) movement. As part of its continued focus on environmental sustainability, the City of Los Altos will soon add six EV charging stations to the downtown area.
The City identified ChargePoint, Inc., a Campbell, CA based company able to provide networked EV charging stations to municipalities as part of grant funding from the United States Department of Energy’s American Reinvestment and Recovery Act. ChargePoint is the world’s largest network of charging stations for electric vehicles with more than 11,000 charging stations installed worldwide.
There are more than 260 registered electric vehicles in the Los Altos area which can now take advantage of these facilities. As an added bonus to owners of Nissan LEAF, Chevy Volt, Prius Plug-in and Tesla electric vehicles, ChargePoint-enabled locations are included on all ChargePoint mobile phone applications for iPhone and Android. These ChargePoint mobile apps provide an easy way to locate stations near any specified address, get turn-by-turn directions, start and stop a charging session directly from a smart phone. Additionally, these apps allow drivers to utilize ChargePoint’s station reservation feature. Drivers can locate reservable stations, and then make, view and cancel a reservation directly from a smart phone.
“I am thrilled to announce the partnership between the City of Los Altos and ChargePoint,” explains Marcia Somers, Los Altos City Manager, “It has been a goal of our Environmental Commission and several community groups to include Electric Vehicle charging stations in the City of Los Altos. We are excited to support the Green movement in our City by providing this valuable resource to our residents as well as visitors to our downtown.”
Charging stations will be installed in two central locations in the downtown Los Altos area. Four charging stations will be installed in Parking Plaza 3 off South San Antonio Road. Another two stations will be installed near the Bus Barn Theater and Los Altos History Museum. There will be a $1.00 per hour charge for parking in each spot and parking will be restricted to Electric Vehicles only. The City will have the charging stations installed by March 31, 2013.
For more information about the project, contact Economic Development at (650) 947-2620.
The mission of the City of Los Altos staff, council, commissions, committees and volunteers is to foster and maintain the City of Los Altos as a great place to live and to raise a family. For more information about the City of Los Altos, please visit www.losaltosca.gov.
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