Plug it in, Plug it in, Santa Cruz Wants to be an Electric Car Capital

The long-awaited future arrived in Santa Cruz Thursday as Mayor Ryan Coonerty cut the ribbon on the city's first public electric vehicle-charging station, one of 50 expected to open in the county by year end.

The station is behind the old Sentinel building, which has become a home to advancing and green technologies.

"Either we don't want to support people who hate us or we don't want to pollute the environment," said Jay Friedland, legislative director for Plug in America, a nonprofit coalition of electric vehicle drivers.

There were electric sports cars, sedans and motorcycles on display, which could go 100 miles or more on one charge. A single charge, which is free for now, gives about 10 miles per hour of 220-volt electricity. The cars are best now for people with short commutes; however, the people gathered for the celebration expect to see more cars and more charging stations, making further drives possible.

The stations were put up by ChargePoint America, a company owned by Campbell's Coulomb Technologies, which specializes in electric vehicles. Much of the funding for the vehicles and stations came from federal government grants, including $15 million of ChargePoint America's $37 million stake.

For now, they are located in Scotts Valley, Capitola and Santa Cruz.  The Capitola station, behind City Hall, isn't open because of the flooding. Smartphone apps will guide drivers to them.

Friedland  argued against skeptics who claimed that trading petroleum for electricity didn't help the environment but merely swapped oil for coal-burning energy plants that provide the electricity.

Electricity, he said, is still 70 percent more effective, "well to wheel," than gas.

San Francisco has eight charging stations, but one building in Mountain View has 40. That would be Google headquarters.

Coonerty said he imagined a time soon when tourists would take advantage of the charging stations, driving down from San Francisco and enjoying Santa Cruz's attractions while waiting for their cars to charge.