Oregon Public Broadcasting

Portland General Electric and Toyota unveiled the first Oregon charging station Tuesday for a plug-in hybrid vehicle. As Rob Manning reports, the companies are anticipating the time when plug-in cars go on the market.

Hybrid cars use gasoline and electric power to move around. Plug-in hybrid prototypes have stronger batteries, and can actually go a few miles exclusively on electric power.  So, they use less gas and emit less exhaust.

Plug-in test vehicles may come to Portland in two years, and they'll rely on the 12 new charging stations that are coming.

But when people can actually buy plug-ins in 2012, John Hansen with Toyota, says drivers will need more than just a dozen places to charge up their cars.

John Hansen: “These are the kinds of things we’re going to have all over the city, in all the parking lots and in the high-density housing. Go to the high-rise apartments, go down in the parking lots, there’s no place to plug it in.”

At the beginning, drivers can charge up for free. In time, car owners would likely have to pay, but PGE officials say it would cost less than gasoline.