France Building EV Charging Network

France is going after one of the key obstacles to getting electric cars on the road:  the need for a charging infrastructure.  The country is changing all that by spending $2.2 billion to build a network of charging stations.

Taxpayer money will go to fund the project that will install the initial nation-wide network, but beyond that, the country is putting the burden on building owners.

The government is making the installation of charging stations mandatory in office parking lots by 2015 and any new apartment buildings with parking lots must host charging stations by 2012.  That’s a quick turnaround!  But according to France’s Environment Minister, a group of fleet operators have indicated they’ll be purchasing around 100,000 EVs by 2015, so the network will be in place just in time.

This project also involves contributing to the creation of a battery manufacturing factory at a Renault facility in Flins.

via Wall Street Journal

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