As part of its Board of Commissioners meeting on Thursday, MLGW will unveil four new electric vehicles that have been added to its fleet. The vehicles will be presented shortly after the opening of the 1:30 President’s Briefing, in MLGW’s 2nd Street parking lot (in the event of inclement weather, the presentation will take place in the MLGW parking garage (the entrance is on Linden Ave.).

MLGW, City of Memphis and industry leaders gathered in February 2011 to announce that Memphis had been added to the EV Project, a federally- and privately-funded $230 million venture designed to increase adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) and install charging infrastructure in selected metropolitan areas in Tennessee, Texas, Arizona, California, Oregon and Washington, plus the District of Columbia.

Memphis, Nashville, Knoxville and Chattanooga are Tennessee sites for private and public access EV charging stations. ECOtality, the company managing the project, will deploy nearly 14,000 charging stations in the U.S., including some 40-50 public access stations within Shelby County.


Other facts about the project:

• About 300 residential charging stations have been installed in Tennessee, with a total of 500 expected by the end of the year.
   
• The entire state of Tennessee and both Nissan Leaf and Chevy Volt owners have been included in the EV Project.
   
• EVs are increasing rapidly in availability: there were nine types of EVs available in 2011, and eight more companies will introduce their EVs in 2012.
   
• MLGW has added four EV sedans to its fleet, and will add EV bucket trucks in 2012.
   
• The Shelby Farms Park Conservancy recently conducted a groundbreaking for a solar-powered station that will be built in a parking lot at the facility.
   
• The station will have spaces for 10 vehicles, and in addition to charging electric cars it will generate clean power for the electrical grid.
   
• Total cost of the solar project is about $500,000, with funding provided through The EV Project, Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) and the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI). Completion is set for late June.
   
• MLGW is also collaborating with TVA and EPRI on an initiative to study incentives for adopting EVs in non-road applications

You can find out more information about The EV Project and MLGW’s initiatives here:
 

• www.pluginmemphis.org
   
• www.theevproject.com
   
• www.afdc.energy.gov/afdc/calc/