City CarShare, in partnership with San Francisco Department of the Environment and San Francisco Recreation and Park, has launched five electric vehicle charging stations for custom long range Toyota Prius plug-in and Ford C-Max Energi plug-in vehicles available to City CarShare members at Kezar Stadium, located in the historic Haight-Ashbury neighborhood of San Francisco.
The initiative aims to support San Francisco’s goal to reduce greenhouse gases by 40 percent by 2025. To achieve this goal, the city of San Francisco has set the goal of having 50 percent of all trips in the city made by sustainable modes, such as taking public transit, walking, biking, driving zero emission vehicles and car sharing.
City CarShare is helping San Francisco achieve this goal by keeping overall car ownership low and by providing a cleaner way for residents to get around when they use carsharing.
Kezar Stadium has housed five City CarShare vehicles since 2002, and will now include a total of eight parking spaces to serve City CarShare’s members.
As the greenest carsharing fleet in the nation, City CarShare has already avoided 292 million pounds of CO2 from going into the atmosphere and will continue to contribute to San Francisco’s goal to reduce emissions by 40 percent by 2025.
The San Francisco Department of the Environment coordinated the planning and installation of the chargers, with support of grants from the U.S. Department of Energy and the California Energy Commission and charging equipment donated to the city by Google.
San Francisco has become a central hub for the electric vehicle market. The newly installed chargers at Kezar Stadium are making electric vehicles available to a wider audience through City CarShare. San Francisco Recreation and Park will accept responsibility for the ownership, maintenance and operation of the electric vehicle charging stations for the first 12 months of operation.
Recently, City CarShare announced that it had achieved its goal of having more than 50 percent of its fleet comprised of electric, hybrid and plug-in hybrid vehicles – a goal met more than a year ahead of schedule. This makes City CarShare the greenest diversified carshare fleet in the country.
This project was made possible by City CarShare through a grant from the Reformulated Gasoline Settlement Fund, in conjunction with the Bay Area Clean Air Foundation (BACAF) and the Bay Area Air Quality Management District (BAAQMD).
The purpose of the fund is to achieve clean air and fuel efficiency benefits for California consumers. Additional funding was provided by the Bay Area Clean Air Foundation (BACAF) and the Bay Area Air Quality Management District (BAAQMD).