Top US Electric Car City Could Soon Be… (You’re Never Gonna Guess It)

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The top electric car city in the US… San Francisco? LA? New York? Portland? What do you think?

Nissan Leaf EV
Image Credit: Nissan

Indianapolis, the capital city of the US state Indiana and home to approximately 800,000 people, is interested in having all of the city’s fleet of cars replaced with electric and plugin hybrid (PHEV) ones. This could soon make it the #1 electric car city in the US.

After hearing about the announcement, this gave the CEO of Energy Systems Network, Paul Mitchell, the idea to put into motion a plan to purchase 500 US-built electric vehicles — possibly the Ford Focus or Nissan Leaf — and also to construct charging stations to support them.



Energy Systems Network partnered with Bolloré (which builds electric cars for the European market) and collaborated with the mayor for this project.

Bolloré is now investing $35 million to launch this program by next year. It will purchase the 500 electric vehicles and also the kiosks required for check in.

There will be 1,200 level-2 charging stations (more charging stations than cars) installed in 200 locations. Level-2 charging stations charge vehicles at 240 volts, and they provide vehicles with 10–20 miles of range for every hour that they are charged. They are the second-fastest chargers today.

“This program provides a great opportunity for downtown workers, residents and visitors to get around town in a car without owning one,” said Mayor Ballard. “This service allows a person, government or company to only pay for a car when they need and want it. They aren’t paying for fuel, insurance, maintenance and parking costs when the vehicle is not in use.”

Sounds pretty awesome. And I think this is a great move towards claiming the top US electric car city title. What are your thoughts?


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Nicholas Brown

Has a keen interest in physics-intensive topics such as electricity generation, refrigeration and air conditioning technology, energy storage, and geography. His website is: Kompulsa.com.

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