Electric car chargers to come early to Nashville

ASSOCIATED PRESS • August 6, 2009

Nashville will be one of the first cities to get chargers for electric vehicles, according to an Arizona-based company working with Nissan and getting an almost $100 million federal grant.

ECOtality Inc. President and CEO Jonathan Read said Wednesday that the U.S. Department of Energy selected its subsidiary, Electric Transportation Engineering Corp., to get the grant.

The first Tennessee stations will be in Nashville, Chattanooga and Knoxville, the company said.

Read said eTec has a deal with Nissan to provide private and public charging stations as 5,000 Nissan plug-in electric vehicles hit the market in the fall of 2010.

Nissan said in a statement that the Japanese automaker is coordinating with eTec to make the electric vehicles and the chargers available in the same cities.

The grant, to be matched by regional participants for a project valued at approximately $199.6 million, is for about 2,500 charging stations in each of five regional markets.

The company also plans to establish chargers in San Diego, Seattle, Phoenix and Tucson, Ariz., and the Oregon cities of Eugene, Corvallis, Salem and Portland.