Bay Area to get infrastructure for electric vehicles

The mayors of San Francisco, Oakland and San Jose today established a plan to speed the rapid development of electric cars.

The effort would link electric vehicle programs with public transit, and provide incentives for businesses to create services for exchanging or recharging batteries.

The mayors' nine-point plan also includes expedited permitting for charging stations and for facilities that offer battery exchanges.

“Our aim is to make the Bay Area—and eventually California—the electric vehicle capital of the U.S.,” said San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom in a release.

The San Francisco Business Times reports:

The first steps of the plan will begin to be rolled out in December. Where the money will come from to fund these programs is still unclear. The San Francisco mayor’s office said through a spokesman it has identified funding sources at the regional and state levels but that it won’t announce anything until they are secure, likely in 2009.

Also today, Palo Alto-based Better Place announced it was launching a $1 billion program to establish infrastructure for electric cars in California, with a focus on the San Francisco Bay Area. Better Place has previously announced such ventures in Australia, Israel and Denmark (see Better Place to charge up Australia, Electric cars are coming to Israel and Project Better Place goes to Denmark).

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