Oregon Public Broadcasting

The Oregon Department of Transportation is asking companies to submit their plans for an electric car recharging station.

As Kristian Foden-Vencil reports, the state says it’s the first in the nation to try and standardize the stations.

The hope among local businesses is that an Oregon company will win the contract and then go on to capture the national market.

The plug that goes from an electric car into a charging station has already been standardized: by the Society of Automotive Engineers, as have several other technical features.

But there’s no standard for the charging station itself – or how it’s going to work. Policy makers say such standards are needed to make things run smoothly for electric car owners. Think of a regular gas pump – wherever you go they all look about the same and operate the same way.

ODOT spokesman Art James, says that’s where Oregon is hoping to get ahead of the pack.

Art James: “One of the things we’re trying to do is avoid some mistakes that were made in the LA areas in the late 1990s, when they had two competing technologies out – one was called inductive charging and one was conductive charging. It was sort of like the old betamax VCR problem. You had the competition between two different types of charges made the public very confused. As to whether or not , if they were running out of juice and they pulled up to this charging station, is that going to work for my vehicle.”

Over the next 90 days, the state is asking companies across the nation to come forward with their ideas -- so they can be tested and evaluated.

James says the appearance, operation and safety features need a uniform look so anyone can use one.

Art James: “What we’re trying to do is make Oregon a friendly place for the early adoption of electric vehicles and we’ve already negotiated a memorandum of understanding with Nissan Motors to be location for the early introduction of their next generation of electric vehicles coming next year. We‘re in discussions with other electric vehicle manufactures to really make Oregon a leader in the nation in the early adoption of electric vehicles.”

Oregon already has the highest per capita of early adopters of hybrid vehicles in the nation. James reasons that if Oregonians are hungry for hybrids, they’ll probably embrace electric vehicles too.

Several well-known companies have expressed an interest in this effort, including Portland General Electric, Nike, and Portland State University.

Jeff Kim is the president of Oregon-based Shorepower Technologies.

Jeff Kim: “Yeah, absolutely, were definitely putting in a proposal for this work.”

Kim’s company started business a few years ago bringing electricity to truckers for their heaters and other electric devices. But over the last few years, the company has embraced the electric vehicle market and now has a dozen charging stations in the Portland metro area.

Kim says all kinds of issues need to be decided by the state’s contract – such as: will the stations be open to everyone?

Jeff Kim: “I know some of the other companies are talking about having an exclusive membership where if you’re not a member of that group you can’t use the charging station at that point.”

Kim’s company is betting the state will want everyone to be able to use a station.

Jeff Kim: “For example if someone came from out of state in their electric vehicle, they would be able to use our station.”

The Nissan car company has said it will bring its new electric car to Oregon next year. The hope is recharging stations and other infrastructure will be standardized by then.

The state is also applying to the federal government for stimulus money for the project.