SANTA BARBARA – The "Plug-In Central Coast" group received a $200,000 grant from the California Energy Commission to help plan for electric vehicle charging stations.
"Plug-In Central Coast" includes San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara and Ventura Counties with the help of the Community Environmental Council.
The tri-counties are collaborating to map out locations for the charging stations. The group is working with local governments for the best locations in public parking lots to install the stations and to streamline the permitting process.
Some stations have already made it to the Central Coast. Ventura has 10 and Solvang is installing six this week in the downtown area.
The Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors approved their involvement at their meeting on Tuesday and will be getting 17 charging stations in nine locations in both north and south county.
"What's really exciting about electric vehicles is that they're really a transformative technology," said Michael Chiacos, Community Environmental Council. "Not like a hybrid which just gets a little bit better or a nice amount of better gas mileage than a regular car, these vehicles get around 100 miles to the gallon equivalent."
Chiacos said while there are only two types of electric vehicles on the market now, there should be around a dozen by the end of the year.
The number of electric vehicles being sold is growing. Around 17,000 drivers bought one in 2011.
Southern California Edison made a projection that in their
