The City of Torrance undertook the “One Mile, One Charger” Project to address the lack of publicly accessible electric vehicle charging stations within its boundaries. The City was awarded grants from the CEC and the Mobile Source Reduction Committee to expand electric vehicle infrastructure in Torrance, which as a regional employment and shopping destination, serves as a prime location to have a significant impact on the surrounding areas. With a goal of visitors or residents never being more than one mile from a charging station while in the City, the grant team installed 14 Level II and 6 direct current fast charging stations across six publicly owned sites, including: the Civic Center, McMaster Park, Columbia Park, Charles Wilson Park, Walteria Park and Downtown Torrance. Data were collected from the charging stations for the duration of the project and analyzed against goals to determine the overall success of the installations. At the completion of the project, the team observed a 303 percent increase in the number of vehicles charged at the prior City owned charging stations. In addition, 92 percent of the City is now within one mile of a charging station and the project as a whole reduced a total of 18,100 kilograms of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Through the achievement of these goals, it is clear that the demand for EV charging stations is substantial and growing and the One Mile, One Charger project has successfully met that demand. This success can also be attributed to the extensive public outreach that the City undertook in determining the barriers to EV ownership and the locations that the public would like EV charging stations to be located. Placing the EV charging stations in prime locations that would ensure steady usage patterns was the first step in ensuring a successful project.
