Working at the single largest power plant in California, it would seem logical that Pacific Gas & Electric employees would drive electric vehicles.
The parking lot at Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant is now home to 10 electric vehicle charging stations, part of PG&E’s drive to install 25,000 such terminals. Part of their effort focuses on urging employees to adopt the technology for their daily commutes.
On March 2 both Ford Motor Company and General Motors (GM) had their electric and hybrid models out for test-drives at the plant and along the heavily guarded access road.
With another 12 stations planned at Diablo, sales have been brisk, largely due to tax and other rebates being offered, making the vehicles much more attractive at initial purchase.
Marty Wright, a PG&E employee at Diablo told reporters that his new all-electric Ford Focus is perfectly capable of handling his 80-mile daily commute to and from Atascadero, but he also appreciates being able to plug in between trips.
Under the electric vehicle-charging plan being offered by PG&E for residential customers they estimate an equivalent cost of $1 per gallon of gas.  That largely depends on the mileage of individual models and the terrain as with any such calculation. Wright’s Focus cost him about $2 for a quick charge from the company’s terminals.
PG&E spokesman Blair Jones said the individual demo of cars available for plant employees was part of a larger push to clean up the environment by encouraging cleaner transportation.
The statistics cited in company press statements show more than 60,000 plug-in electric vehicles currently registered in PG&E’s service area, which represents more than a fifth of all EVs in the U.S.
“The Governor’s Office has called for 1.5 million zero-emission vehicles in California by 2025,” the company said in a news release, “to help meet the state’s ambitious goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050. To support that plan, industry models suggest that PG&E’s service area will need about 100,000 Level 2 chargers in public locations by 2020.”
Also on display at the event was a more behind-the-scenes example of the technology, a brand new plug-in, hybrid utility truck, one of eight being rolled out in the state, which is capable of powering businesses or a residential block during an outage or while work is being done. The truck has a 30-mile range on batteries and can charge from the grid at a job site before or after outages as well.
The Central Coast is PG&E territory is expected to obtain one of the trucks by the end of 2015.