Partnership aims to make Northern Colorado leader in electric vehicles Read more: Partnership aims to make Northern Colorado leader in electric vehicles

The Electrification Coalition is partnering with the cities of Fort Collins and Loveland as well as Colorado State University to promote electric vehicle education and ownership.

On Monday at the Fort Collins Museum of Discovery, the partners launched “Drive Electric Northern Colorado,” a first-of-its-kind initiative aimed at achieving widespread adoption of plug-in electric vehicles, or PEVs, by businesses and consumers.

The event featured the groundbreaking for the installation of a DC quick charger station, which will be available for public use at the museum. Believed to be the first quick-charger in operation in Colorado, it can charge a car in 15 to 30 minutes.

Among those attending the event were Electrification Coalition CEO Robbie Diamond; Fort Collins Mayor Karen Weitkunat; Loveland Mayor Cecil A. Gutierrez; Ron Sega, vice president and enterprise executive for CSU’s Office of Energy and the Environment and a professor of systems engineering; former Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter; and representatives from FedEx, Nissan, Eaton Co., New Belgium, Odell Brewing, the downtown business association, Schneider Electric and the American Lung Association.

It also was announced that the Bohemian Foundation will donate two charging stations to the project.

“Once a city has the right buy-in from local businesses and leaders, and a commitment to coordination and education,” Diamond said, “the environment is ripe to show businesses and citizens from all walks of life the benefits of using PEVs in their everyday lives. Fort Collins and Loveland are going to show the nation how it’s done.”

Weitkunat said Fort Collins “continues to be a place of innovation. We’re proud to be the first community in the nation to truly implement a widespread effort to encourage use of electric vehicles.”

Gutierrez said Loveland “believes that, as a leader in sustainability, we have an obligation to help reduce our dependence on oil, and we have already started to convert our public vehicle fleet to PEVs.”

Said Sega: “We have some of the best and brightest researchers, not only in the field of electric vehicle technology but also engaged at the interface of transportation and the electric grid. CSU looks forward to helping turn Northern Colorado into a model for collaboration and a leader for energy solutions.”

The Electrification Coalition, founded in 2009, is a nonpartisan, not-for-profit group of business leaders committed to reducing oil dependence through the deployment of electric vehicles on a mass scale.

 

http://www.electrificationcoalition.org/