Earlier this summer, work began to install 14 Blink Electric Vehicle (EV) chargers in four City facilities, including City Hall Parking Garages 1 and 2, according to Murfreesboro Principal Planner Margaret Ann Ely.

Co-sponsored locally by Murfreesboro Electric Department, four electric vehicle charging stations were installed in City Hall, two on each of two parking garage levels; four at Sports*Com, two at Old Fort Park and two on the City’s parking lot at the corner of E. Lytle and North Spring streets.

Tennessee was only one of nine states and the District of Columbia chosen to participate in the new initiative begun by ECOtality, a company dedicated to the promotion of Smart EV Charging Solutions, according to information posted on its website.

Supported by a federal Department of Energy grant and sponsored by a host of companies that include Nissan of North America (which manufactures the all-electric Leaf in its Smyrna plant) and General Motors, Inc. (Chevrolet Division), which manufactures the gasoline-supported electric Volt; the program initiated installation of the 14 Blink EV chargers for public use here and has plans to expand the program  throughout the country.

The Level 2 charging systems like those installed in Murfreesboro EV’s can charge a vehicle in four to six hours utilizing 220-volt, Direct Current power, Ely explained.

EV chargers are already available at several locations throughout the city, including MED and the Rutherford County Chamber of Commerce.

ECOtality has installed chargers in major cities and metropolitan areas throughout the states of California, Oregon, Washington, Arizona, Texas, Tennessee, Illinois, Georgia, Pennsylvania and Washington, D.C.

The program is the largest single deployment of electric infrastructure in history, according to company literature. 

Despite the Good News, The Company that Installed Charges is Having Problems:

The company that installed several charging stations in Rutherford County and the City of Murfreesboro will likely continue to maintain them for the time being — even though the firm may soon go broke.

In August, ECOtality Inc. stated in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) it might file for bankruptcy, saying they have failed to “attain sales volumes” of the charging stations to “support the Company’s operations in the second half of 2013.” The company also said it was having problems finding financing.

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