Albany, NY unveils electric car pilot program

[Adarondax]

ALBANY --A study is now underway to find out how to best install electrical charging stations throughout the Capital City making them one of the first municipalities in the nation to do so.

"It's a major step. We've been talking about it and when we talk about the price of gas that we don't have control of" says Albany Mayor Jerry Jennings. "Lets do a study that will probably take a couple of months to see how we can make it available for people who want to buy an electric car."

The study will look at the cost, locations and accessibility of the charging stations.

The idea is to encourage drivers to consider switching to electric vehicles for the enviroment and cost savings.

"If you were to look at the equivalent cost for fueling an electric vehicle it's $1.50 a gallon compared to what we're seeing at $4.00 per gallon" says Janet Joseph over at NYSERDA.

Paul Slazas* says the savings were enough for him to buy his first new car, a Chevy Volt, in forty years.

"Looking for something that would give me better gas mileage" says Slazas. "I've driven 600 miles and put four gallons in this morning. That's 93 miles to the gallon. We were figuring out that I probably will be saving a couple of thousand dollars a year."

Joel DeNooyer of DeNooyer Chevrolet says the new Chevy Volt costs approximately $40,000 and will actually run you anywhere between $32,500 and $33,000 since there is a $7500 tax credit available.

The savings will add up faster for someone who drives small distances each day.

"If you're driving 100 miles per day than you're only getting the benefit of electricity for 30 miles and paying for gas for the other 70 miles" says DeNooyer. "But if you commute only 35 miles a day and in a week you don't use any gas at all, the return would be extremely fast. About three to four years."

The city of Albany hopes to switch 10% of their fleet to alternative fuel vehicles by 2030.

It will be at least another year before the first electrical charging station would be installed in the city.

http://www.cbs6albany.com/news/alban...ilot-city.html

*GM-Volt.com member:
http://gm-volt.com/forum/showthread....y-new-Red-Volt