PG&E to Re-Charge at Bart
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PG&E offers Bay Area drivers a `commute that doesn't pollute`
SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 24, 1995--Pacific Gas and
Electric Company today opened the Bay Area's newest and largest
station for recharging electric cars, offering drivers a `commute
that doesn't pollute.`
In an experiment with the Bay Area Rapid Transit District, local air
quality officials, and an East Bay corporation, PG&E will operate a
plug-in `electric station` at BART's Ashby station in Berkeley that
will recharge up to 19 specially-designed, Norwegian-built electric
commute cars while the drivers are at work.
The project, which involves 40 vehicles, is one of the nation's
largest to demonstrate the feasibility of electric car technology. It
will also be a key part of PG&E's effort to develop standards for
recharging cars and other infrastructure needs as the state prepares
for mass production of electric vehicles.
The state's air pollution agency, the Air Resources Board, has ordered
that 2 percent of major car makers' California production be totally
non-polluting, presumably electric-powered, by 1998. As a result, PG&E
expects to meet the recharging needs of up to 4,800 electric cars in
its service territory by the year 2000, primarily in the Bay Area.
`For the last few years, PG&E has been the leader of a national effort
to develop standards for recharging systems so that consumers can
repower their electric cars safely, conveniently and with the most
efficient use of electricity,` said Anthony Harris, PG&E vice
president of sales and marketing. `This is our most ambitious project
yet that will tell us a lot about the driving habits of Bay Area
commuters, and the electric needs of the cars they're driving.
`This is a rolling research laboratory for us today and a prototype of
the plug-in electric station for a new generation of non-polluting
cars of the next century, rolled into one,` he added.
In the experimental project, employees of the Sybase Corp. of
Emeryville will commute to their jobs in vehicles developed by the
Norwegian manufacturer PIVCO. The vehicles will be `recharged at no
charge` at the BART station while employees are working. Full
recharging is expected to be completed in two to three hours from a
220-volt system.
Some of the cars will be equipped with on-board computers that will
give PG&E researchers valuable information about the energy needs of
the batteries, how efficiently the cars use that energy, and other
data that will help design permanent recharging systems in the future.
`We are not in the business of developing electric cars,` Harris noted.
`But if our customers are driving them, we intend to provide electric
service that is as easy to use as plugging in a TV and that makes the
most effective use of electricity at the lowest cost.`
--30--np/ms..
CONTACT: Bill Sessa, 916/446-6616 or Renee Parnell, 415/973-5930
AP-NY-10-24-95 1747EDT
...
Associated Press, Tel# 415-621-7432 Fax:415-552-9430
1390 Market, Suite 318 Fox Plaza, SF, CA 94012 USA
Please send questions and comments to
David Coale .
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