Seattle is expanding its efforts to promote plug-in vehicles with a new plan called Drive Clean Seattle that the city calls “one of the most comprehensive plans in the country to electrify transportation.”

The City of Seattle already has some 300 hybrids, 10 PHEVs and 79 LEAFs in its municipal fleet, and it will be phasing in more and more electrified and alternative-fuel vehicles. The city also plans to revise city codes to encourage car-share companies such as Uber and Lyft to electrify their fleets.

Over the next five to seven years, the city aims to install 400 charging stations for its municipal fleet, and to triple the number of charging stations available to the public. Local utility Seattle City Light will be installing public chargers under a pilot program. Each station is estimated to cost the city approximately $80,000 to install (including $10,000-15,000 in hardware costs). A budget proposal to pay for the new chargers is in the works.

Seattle City Light also plans to institute time-of-use pricing, and to offer a program to make installing home charging stations easier by allowing customers to pay for them in installments on their electric bill.

Source: MYNorthwest
Image: Nicolas Will (CC BY-SA 2.0)