Pennsylvania to have the first “electric highway” on the East Coast

The Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission has announced construction of four new electric vehicle charging stations at turnpike rest areas (story with map here). 

This is just the beginning of an exciting new project.  Funding and agreements are in place to install chargers at all 17 turnpike rest areas, both on the east-west mainline (roughly Philadelphia to Pittsburgh) and the Northeast Extension (roughly Philadelphia to Scranton), with both regular “Level 2” chargers and new Fast Chargers.  When the work is done, EV owners in the state’s metropolitan areas will no longer be “stranded” on EV islands.  They will be able, when they need or want to, to travel the main interstate corridors, just like their gasoline-powered neighbors.  (The Fast Chargers are key to this, allowing vehicles to be charged in minutes rather than hours.)

Washington state and Oregon are already “charged up” on their major interstate routes.  In the northeast, progress has been slower.  Now we will see a real interstate electric corridor in place, hopefully the first major link in the new Northeast Electric Vehicle Network!