Free car charging stations planned

300 home owners in North and South Carolina will receive free charging stations.

The free charging stations will mean a savings of several thousand dollars for the early adopters of the Chevy Volt, Nissan Leaf and Ford Focus Electric.

The giveaway is a way for the two biggest power companies to study the long term effects of charging electric cars on the state's power grid. Current power systems weren't designed to handle plug in cars like the Ford Focus Electric that can drain lots of electricty.

The Ford Focus Electric and other electric vehicles represent a large economic opportunity for power companies nationwide. One electric company's officials estimate over 220,000 electric cars by 2020 just in the Carolinas.

They compare putting in an electric car charging station to adding another house to that portion of the grid.

http://www.tradingmarkets.com/news/stock-alert/pgn_free-car-charging-stations-planned-1472219.html

Not sure why the power companies are not promoting EVs to a greater extent. The housing market is certainly not going to provide any growth opportunities for a very long time...why not jump on this innovation to drive more use?

That's a good point - and I guess this article hints at it.

Everyone (except people that are all stoked about the Ford Focus Electric and the Nissan Leaf etc) is down on electric cars because of the extra power they'll need to pull from the grid. Really what that means is more business and more opportunity for the power companies.

I understand their concern with the power grid being able to handle it, but if vehicles are mostly charged overnight that's when the usage is lower anyways - people's air conditioning,lights,computers etc are turned off. So what if your car is plugged in in the garage?

The biggest problem I see with the Electric Vehicles is that the power companies have to find/produce/buy etc the power - forget worrying about how to get the electricity to the users. Do they have enough power to avoid rolling blackouts?!