Summary

It's official!  The largest transportation electrification project in history has started.  This morning on 10/1/2009, eTec announced that they have officially signed the $99.8 million grant with DOE to start installing Electric Vehicle Infrastructure in 5 States.

Analysis

This is truly a milestone in the US' commitment and adoption of Electric Vehicles.  While you could take away that the government gave a private company a big wad of cash to do their job, there's much more to it than that.  Due to the grant's objectives, the transparency guidelines for taking the money, and observing consumer behaviors, we stand to learn a LOT from this massive project.  Things like...
  • Monetizing electric vehicle charging - what works and what doesn't
  • The best places to install charging stations...especially fast chargers
  • How does having a charger near a retail or restaurant affect consumer behavior?
  • How and when people charge their vehicles.  This gives us insight into how range anxiety affects EV owners
  • What will be the actual dynamic between municipalities, utilities, business, and consumers on their adoption in the various cities?
Related interviews with eTec's CEO Don Karner about the grant...

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