Upstate Plug-In Electric Vehicle Readiness Project

The purpose of the Upstate Plug-in Electric Vehicle Readiness Project was to foster greater use of plug-in electric vehicles in our three county Upstate California region by preparing a plan to support infrastructure development. To address the scope of the project, the specific aims consisted of forming a collaborative and regionally representative coordinating council, producing an objective infrastructure deployment and siting plan, and developing an education plan that encouraged fleet adoption, support by transportation boards, consumer interest, and developed guidelines to facilitate an easier permitting process of electric vehicle charging stations.

The major findings of this project suggest that infrastructure siting and deployment in the Upstate California region will demand a greater number of level 3 Direct Current fast charge stations, relative to metropolitan regions, due to the relatively large and rural geographical area, a high number of vehicle miles traveled, and a high throughput of transitory vehicles along a major interstate highway corridor. Due to the collaborative nature of the project’s goals the Upstate region benefited greatly from the experience, expertise and methodology developed by the North Coast Region’s Plug-in Electric Vehicle readiness plan. This methodology supported an objective result of the infrastructure deployment plan through a predictive modeling program, a refined micro-siting decision matrix, and a regional charging infrastructure ownership example. This objectivity was critical to the successful result of this project because the robust rationale addressed issues of fairness that arose in our coordinating council. The successful conclusions demonstrated by this method in two regions of California suggests that it can be used for plug-in electric vehicle planning in other regions, especially for other rural communities along a major transportation corridor like Interstate 5.