Within the electric car industry, there is a little bit of a “chicken or the egg” philosophy.  Which comes first, the vehicle or the charging infrastructure to support the vehicles?  This is not an easy answer, but with projects like Indiana’s Project Plug-IN, Duke Energy is helping to understand which needs to come first, or even better, can they begin together?

This project is a big collaboration between different companies in Indiana to promote the advancement of electric vehicle technology and adoption of Plug-In Electric Vehicles:

• Energy Systems Network (a nonprofit organization)
• Indianapolis Power and Light (another utility in the area)
• MISO (a regional electricity transmission organization)
• Purdue (a university)
• and others

The project provides us the opportunity to install residential, work place and public charging station infrastructure.  To date we have installed over 100 of them at homes, state parks, and even at a few Kohl’s locations!

I have been a part of several media events unveiling public charging stations.  The atmosphere at these events is very “electric”.  People are excited about the possibility of owning a plug-in electric vehicle and have the ability to charge while shopping or running errands around their city. This article in the Indiana Business journal describes the unveiling the City of Lafayette charging stations.  The Indianapolis Star covered the unveiling of the Hamilton Town Center –Simon Property charging stations.

From what the team has heard to date, our residential PEV pilot participants love the experience of driving electric vehicles. Most are very passionate about the industry and provide us great feedback on the cars as well as the usability of the Level 2 charging station we provided them as part of the pilot. We also hear comments like, “I love driving right by the gas pumps; I don’t even keep track of the price of gas any longer.” We’re still looking for residential pilot participants in Indiana. If you’re interested, please visit our website for more information. If you aren’t in Indiana, we would still love to hear from you! Tell us what you would like to see more of in the comments section below.

Leave a Comment