Electric car charging stations increase

The number of publicly accessible plug-in sites for electric cars continues to increase in Wisconsin. But will demand for the vehicles follow?

The city of Milwaukee has just installed two charging stations for electric cars, and two more stations are on the way. Dave Hanson is with Electric Charge Mobility, which sells units that are part of a network that allows drivers to find and reserve the stations. Hanson says there are about 40 charging stations around Wisconsin. He says growth of the network is slow.

But Hanson hopes by a year from now, there may be a half-dozen electric vehicle models on sale in Wisconsin. He says the charging stations allow drivers to recharge their electric cars when not at home. The stations typically take a credit card or a charge pass. The Chevy volt also has a gas tank that allows people to drive hundreds of miles, if they don't have access to a charging unit. Federal safety regulators recently closed the book on a probe into volts catching on fire.

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