The Renault-Nissan Alliance has been busy in the last two years partnering with utilities in Japan, Denmark, France, Monaco and other countries to create an EV infrastructure. Nissan is making inroads into the American market with its recent commitment to an EV rollout in Tucson, Arizona. Nissan is collaborating with ECOtality and the Pima Association of Governments (PAG) to pave the way for electrical vehicles in the region by 2012.
The Pima Association of Governments (PAG) is a non-profit association representing city and tribal governments in the area surrounding Tucson. PAG’s Clean Cities Program is an initiative that encourages the use of alternative fuels like E85, CNG and hydrogen to cut the region’s dependence on fossil fuels. The Clean Cities Program has 60 member cities and municipalities that will share information and design a charging infrastructure with the help of ECOtality.
ECOtality will bring its technical expertise to the Tucson project including charging stations and monitoring equipment to control refueling. The Scottsdale, Arizona company’s Micro-Climate Program meshes well with the PAG Clean Cities program in its commitment to responsible and responsive infrastructure design. The Micro-Climate Program is referred to as a “turnkey operation” on the ECOtality website, an effort to empower its partners to develop charging solutions in a short period of time. ECOtality is working on a similar project in British Columbia, partnering with American automakers Ford, GM and Chrysler to ensure that their EVs work on the streets of Vancouver and Victoria.
Once ECOtality and PAG are able to work out an EV charging infrastructure that is sustainable, Nissan will be able to roll out its EVs to Tucson businesses and customers. Nissan plans to release EVs into the American market in 2010 and globally in 2012, making public charging stations critical to the marketability of these vehicles. The automaker has already arrange for fleet discounts to government agencies and major businesses in the Tucson area. While Nissan will benefit from the work done by ECOtality and PAG, Tucson charging stations will meet SAE standards for universal compatibility including Nissan and Renault EVs.
The ECOtality/PAG/Nissan partnership makes sense for many reasons not the least of which is each partner’s existing EV plans. The Clean Cities Program is the quintessential urban planning tool for EV infrastructure, ECOtality adds the latest alternative-fuel technology and Nissan brings its burgeoning line of EVs and hybrids to the mix. As with any other clean-energy partnership in the economic downturn, we will need to wait and see if financial concerns leave the ECOtality/PAG/Nissan partnership stuck in its early stages.
