GLOBE-Net, July 16, 2012 - A new report called the EV City Casebook documents the rise of electric vehicles (EVs) in 16 cities and outlines what the top EV-friendly cities are doing to make them successful.

The sixteen cities involved in the collaborative project are Amsterdam, Barcelona, Berlin, BrabantStad, the Goto Islands in Nagasaki, Hamburg, Helsinki, Kanagawa, Los Angeles, New York, North East England, Portland, Research Triangle in North Carolina, Rotterdam, Shanghai, and Stockholm.

They have a combined target to sell 6 million electric and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles by 2020. If they reach this goal, EVs would account for about 6% of total vehicle sales and about 20 million cars on the road.

Three cities, Amsterdam, Barcelona, and Los Angeles have taken the lead and are instituting innovative programs to reach their ambitious EV targets.

Amsterdam currently has 750 EVs on the road today with the goal of increasing this number to 10,000 by 2015. Amsterdam is introducing EVs into its car-sharing program (Car2Go) and is transitioning its city taxi fleet from diesel to electric.

Barcelona's LIVE program (Logistics for the Implementation of the Electric Vehicle) is an open platform that allows EV users to access a wide range of information as well as locate charging stations. Barcelona is also working on an EV car sharing program in collaboration with MIT and may resemble the University's ideas for the City Car.

Los Angeles (LA) is another top EV-friendly city with its Department of Water and Resources providing a $2,000 discount to homeowners who install EV charging stations on their property. LA's initiatives come at a time when EVs have been a contentious public policy issue in California with opinions being shared by proponents and opponents alike.

An article by Max Frankel of the Center for American Progress gives more details on these three cities.

EVs are an emerging transportation option in BC. Indeed, the province is offering a $2.7 million Community Charging Infrastructure (CCI) Fund to help build a province-wide network of up to 570 EV charging stations.

Some organizations argue that BC is one of the most promising jurisdictions in North America for the adoption of EVs due to the high proportion of electricity generated from renewable sources as well as the majority (95 percent) of all vehicle trips in BC's urban areas being less than 30 kilometres, thereby alleviating concerns around range anxiety.

However, research by PICS has suggested that while EVs are promising, the installation of charging stations still faces significant barriers.

Some communities like Nanaimo and the Resort Municipality of Whistler are already making progress with EV implementation, including the provision of Level 2 public charging stations.

Overall, a number of factors will influence whether EVs become a success story in BC, such as the cost of batteries and how the vehicles are integrated into current sustainable transportation objectives of municipalities.

With respect to battery concerns, a recent study by McKinsey & Company demonstrates that costs may indeed fall in the years to come.

PICS Climate News Scan - Produced by ISIS, Sauder School of Business, UBC and the Pacific Institute for Climate Solutions (PICS) Authors: Justin Bull, Liz Ferris, Clea Moray, James Noble, Tim Shah Editors: Neil Thomson (ISIS), James Tansey (ISIS), Jessica Worsley (PICS), Tom Pedersen (PICS)