More roadside chargers needed for electric cars

NEW YORK — The auto industry calls it range anxiety: Drivers want electric cars but worry they won't have enough juice to make long trips. After all, what good is going green if you get stranded with a dead battery?

It's a fear that automakers must overcome as they push to sell more battery-powered cars. So government and business are taking steps to reassure drivers by building up the nation's network of electric charging stations.

The hope is Americans will become more comfortable buying cars such as Nissan's all-electric Leaf, due out late this year, which can travel just 100 miles on a single charge. That's fine for a commute but potentially stressful for longer road trips.

"I think the Leaf is a beautifully designed vehicle, but 50 miles in one direction is just not enough," says Bob Shafron, a former electric car owner in California. "I think they are going to run into problems in markets like LA, where things are spread out."

Only a few hundred public chargers exist now, but several government grants totaling more than $115 million will help add thousands more, including in San Diego, Detroit, Washington, D.C., and Bellevue, Wash.

Electric vehicle advocates hope more will be built by private retailers and restaurants, using the charging stations to draw in customers the same way coffee shops offer Wi-Fi.

Public and privately funded chargers are going up in places like rest stops, hotels and McDonald's and Starbucks. Still, even the most optimistic estimates put the number of charging stations at 16,000 by 2012, tiny compared with the 117,000 gas stations on American roads.

President Barack Obama wants 1 million electric cars on American roads by 2015, but experts say a chicken-and-egg problem is standing in the way. Before enough cars hit the road, private vendors may be reluctant to build many charging stations. And without many charging stations on the road, people may be reluctant to buy the cars.

Most public stations will take eight hours to juice up a car all the way, about the same as chargers in individual homes. These plugs could work for people who have chargers near their offices, but wouldn't work for quick refueling. Even a partial charge will take awhile — two-and-a-half hours to get 30 miles. A limited number of the chargers will be fast-chargers. If you can find one, it will still take 30 minutes for a full powerup.