SMUD officials said they also plan to open more EV fast-charging stations near the utility's headquarters in Sacramento. The stations allow users to charge their vehicles for a fee equivalent to 22 cents per kilowatt-hour, payable by mobile app or credit card. SMUD calculated that EV drivers pay the equivalent of about $2 “per gallon,” compared with an average California gasoline cost of more than $3.50 per gallon.
Similar efforts are under way in other parts of the country, too.
The West Coast Electric Highway program, a cooperation between California, Oregon and Washington state, brought dozens of new stations to the region in an attempt to quell drivers’ range anxiety. In May 2014, eight U.S. governors signed a pact to put 3.3 million zero-emission vehicles on American roadways by 2025. Others, like New York-based HEVO Power, experiment with wireless vehicle charging. The United States leads the global market in electric vehicle use, accounting for 290,000 plug-in electric cars sold since 2008, representing 41 percent of sales globally.