SF Bay Area to become the EV capital of the US?

I am happy for SF but sad for me :(

I actually contacted Better Place months ago to inquire about their program and see what type of cities they were looking for.  I also just wanted to learn more about the entire project and they never replied with anything.  California gets all the good stuff, I'm just jealous!  But congrats, I've been following them for some time and I think what they are doing is fantastic and I am confident that they will make some of the biggest strides towards modernizing our transportation and our world views!

Oh forgot to mention about the battery swapping.  With the right infrastructure it could work, but that would require some seriously universal technology.  And on top of that, I have yet to see an EV today that has easy or moderate access to the batteries, not to mention the fact that they way a ton, and even the Li-Ion packs are so massive they are a paint to maneuver.  I guess the Zap truck is the best I've seen so far, since the entire bed raises up and the batteries are lined up in a row, but it is still more complicated than it should be.

Last week a friend of mine actually texted me about an article than ran in the UK Financial Times called "San Francisco powers up for age of electric cars."

I thought this bit was rather interesting..

Despite strong support yesterday from city and state officials, however, California's attempt to put itself in the lead in electric-car development faces considerable hurdles.

Most development in electric cars is likely to happen in the crowded urban centres of Europe and Asia, according to an analysis by California's Air Resources Board last year, pointing to the high cost of batteries, limited driving range of the vehicles and the higher cost of petrol in many countries outside the US.

But it seems like they're operating on the premise of "If you build it, they will come."  Shai Agassi said, "Once you put the network in place, innovation happens close to where the network is."

In either case, it's a pretty exciting time to be in the Bay Area.  And srj0385, you'll just have to come visit!  :-)

This is a great example of local action to achieve endependence = energy independence that ends dependence on polluting fuels.

Endependence is a big task, as a matter of fact, we are waging a War for Endependence.

Want to enlist?  Sign the Declaration of Endependence at http://endependence.info/declaration .

I am very pleased about charging stations almost being in reach.  I hope financial problems do not slow this venture down!  I might have to visit- that would be free!