LA finally gets public DC fast charger for electric vehicles

Well, it's about time!

The city of Los Angeles just had its very first electric vehicle DC fast charger installed – an ECOtality Blinkcharger public station that can fill up a compatible EV to roughly 80 percent full in 30 minutes. It was unveiled last week in downtown L.A.'s Arts District, across the street from several restaurants. The crowd cheered as the fast charger was introduced and LA City Councilmember Jose Huizar paid tribute to the contribution the fast charger will make to the city. Other notables in attendance were Chris Paine, director of the films Who Killed the Electric Car? and Revenge of the Electric Car, and Paul Scott, co-founder of Plug In America and who is now in charge of Nissan Leaf sales at Nissan of Downtown LA. When the project's developer, Yuval Ben-Zemer, noted that he could have put gas stations where these chargers now stand, the crowd cheered.

The fast charger is sitting next to a ten Level 2 chargers in the downtown LA parking lot. These increasingly common chargers take as long as six to eight hours to fully recharge a completely depleted battery, making the fast charger much more appealing for drivers in a rush. Fast chargers are slowly being installed alongHighway 5 in Washington and Oregon, but this is the first one in Los Angeles. Why would that be? Good question.



Source: Autoblog Green