Georgia is encouraging employers in the state to install charging stations that would make it easier for their workers to buy electric cars.
Don Francis, executive director of Clean Cities Georgia, said the Peach State has the second-highest number of electric vehicles of all the states, according to SFGate, with 1,000 more vehicles are driven their each month.
"We won't soon catch California, but we're leaving every other state in the weeds," Francis said recently at the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce seminar, which was hosted for employers.
However, Ben Echols, program manager for electric transportation at Georgia Power, said 80 percent of these cars are located in five metro countries in Atlanta, SFGate reported.
Georgia is looking to install the stations for several reasons, one of which being that the vehicles have no exhaust, which can contribute to solving Georgia's air quality problems in Atlanta, Augusta, and other places where manufacturing takes place. Francis added that because electric vehicles cost almost one-tenth as much as cars that run on gasoline per mile, the $14 billion that the state spends on gasoline could be used to improve the economy.
"We love workplace charging because it is an incredible benefit of work," said Sarah Olexsak, coordinator of the Workplace Charging Challenge at the U.S. Department of Energy. The company parking lots can also be used as showrooms for electric cars where owners can talk to co-workers about buying the vehicles.
Gov. Nathan Deal's administration is currently developing incentives to support building charging stations throughout Georgia. When installed, each station runs close to $15,000. Stations have already been installed by Georgia Power, Coca-Cola, TOTO USA, Cisco Systems and other employers in the state, either due to requests from workers or as an environmental goal from the business world. So far, Coke has built the most stations, all of which are located in Atlanta, reports the Chattanooga Times Free Press.
"We'd like to thank the state of Georgia and the federal government for helping us out," said Eric Ganther, transportation planner at Coke. "The tax incentives are, of course, very helpful and key to making this work."
Nissan Motors discovered in its surveys that workplace charging stations played a bigger role in people buying electric cars than did stations at stores and recreation sites. However, Cornelius Willingham, EV operations manager in the Southeast for Nissan, said customers spend more time shopping at stores where their cars can be charged.
Employers believe installing more charging stations will result in more workers buying electric cars, and, as a result, the stations would be put to good use.
"I guarantee you what you buy today won't be enough," Echols said.
