L.A. Mayor Villaraigosa: tens of thousands of electric vehicles will be sold right here

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa issued the following statement after meeting with Secretary of Energy Steven Chu. The two met on Friday (May 13) to announce the upgrading of the public electric vehicle charging infrastructure at Exposition Park.

“In the next several years, tens of thousands of electric vehicles will be sold right here in Southern California. As the car capital of the world, we plan to seize this opportunity and stand at the forefront of the electric vehicle revolution.

Today, we are putting federal dollars to work to update our electric vehicle charging infrastructure. And last month, we announced Los Angeles Department of Water and Power’s Electric Vehicle Home Charger Rebate Program that will offer rebates of up to $2,000 to LADWP residential customers for home charger and installation costs.

The City of Los Angeles is in overdrive to improve our air quality and implement environmentally-friendly programs. We’ve reached our goal of sourcing 20 percent of our energy from renewable resources and have the largest municipal CNG fleet in the United States. Upgrading our electric vehicles charging infrastructure is yet another opportunity to collectively steer Los Angeles away from pollution, dependency, and waste and to move into the fast lane towards a cleaner, greener future.”