Oregon Public Broadcasting

Governor Kulongoski created a new group Wednesday, to streamline the introduction of electric cars to Oregon.

The new council will help make sure that if you buy an electric car, there'll be enough charging stations to stop you constantly running out of power.

Electric cars generally only go about 100 miles on one charge.

The new council will also look at where cars should be introduced and review the regulatory issues that new technologies inevitably face.

Governor Ted Kulongoski draws a parallel between the new companies that'll usher in Oregon's electric cars and the state's high tech pioneers.

Ted Kulongoski: "When Intel came in the middle 70's it had a small footprint. And what we see today is a 30 year investment that the state has made with Intel. And I think it's been a great benefit to the state."

One company that's working in the new electric car market is ECOtality. It plans to build a network of charging stations around the country.

In fact, it got $130 million in federal stimulus money to do just that.  It will also look into where all those charging stations ought to go.

Company spokesman, David Mayfield, says the stations need to be put in places people spend time -- because it takes an hour charge for every 15 miles of  driving. 

David Mayfield: "Now in those kinds of locations we would expect the charging station to be near a restaurant, it might be near a museum, or a park, or a city hall or a library. We're also putting out fast charge stations which would give you a full charge in less than 30 minutes. And in that kind of situation we might be looking at say a place where you could pick up a cup of coffee or it may be at a gas station."

Most stations will be put in at the homes and businesses of the people who chose to buy an electric car. But public stations are needed so people can drive from say Portland to Eugene and back without running out of juice.

Nissan plans to sell about 1,000 of so-called Leaf models in Oregon starting in December. A half dozen other manufacturers are expected to follow suit.

Anyway, Oregon is getting electric vehicles about a year before most of the country. What happens here and in four other test markets will dictate how the vehicles are rolled out nationwide.