In February 2013, I made a decision that would transform not only my driving experience but also my perspective on transportation and sustainability. When I bought my electric vehicle (EV), a 2013 Ford Focus, it was at a time when EVs were still a novelty here in Florida and no public charging stations in the South-east region.

Electric Vehicle charging is not quite the same as combustion engine fueling. Some good experiences, and some bad, but always different.

The city of Orlando has a sustainability goal of achieving net zero carbon dioxide emissions by the year 2050. As the city’s municipal utility, Orlando Utilities Commission, known as OUC, the Reliable One, announced its intention to meet that goal, as well as interim targets of 50% reduction by 2030 and 75% by 2040.

Broward County Schools is one of just a handful of Florida school districts that have started the transition to electric school buses. Florida Transportation Systems (FTS) and FPL, the electric utility serving the county, were integral partners in the school district’s decision to make the shift. At this time, the Broward Schools has taken delivery of 20 of the 60 electric school buses on order.

Altamonte Springs has set an example for other municipalities by striving to work beyond the typical constraints of local government. This includes establishing their own electric utility to provide a diverse array of renewable energy sources for their government facilities while still being served by an investor owned utility.

Year-end market data for the Southeast shows continued growth and national leadership in EV manufacturing investments and jobs. We also see growth in sales, charging station deployment, and public funding, despite our region lagging national averages.

Pulitzer Prize winning auto columnist, Dan Neil, discusses his next car in the Wall Street Journal — and it’s going to be electric.

How an Electric Vehicle Works

Tesla, GM and Nissan advocate for extending the federal EV tax credit

EV Drive Coalition

National Lab Demos High-Power Wireless EV Charging: Researchers at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory have demonstrated a 120-kilowatt wireless charging system for vehicles—providing six times the power of previous ORNL technology and a big step toward charging times that rival the speed and convenience of a gas station fill-up.

Koben Systems’ New Scalable Battery Storage Solution for Multi-Unit and Workplace EV Charging

Researchers at North Carolina State University have built an electric vehicle fast charger that is at least 10 times smaller than existing systems and wastes 60 percent less power during the charging process, without sacrificing the charging time.

Workhorse Enters Into Initial Production of NGEN-1000 All-Electric Delivery Van: “Look around you. Virtually everything you see in your home or place of business got there because a delivery truck brought it. The vast majority of those delivery trucks are heavy beasts — 8,000 lbs and up — powered by diesel engines.

Q2 2018 returned the strongest sales on record for electric vehicles (EV) with 65,585 units sold in the U.S. Nearly 20,000 EVs were sold since last year, an increase of approximately 41 percent year-over-year (y/y)

The Illinois Environmental Protection Agency is proposing to spend $10.8 million of its Volkswagen settlement money on electric school buses, a larger carve out than any other state.

New federal data show that homeowners are more than three times more likely than renters to own an EV. And since 43 million U.S. households – 37 percent of all households – rent their homes, it is worth thinking hard about why this gap exists. The reason for this stems from the question: Should EV infrastructure be a responsibility of the tenant or landlord?

With EV’s becoming more popular, many agencies and drivers have begun to focus on the safety of these vehicles. There is no doubt that EVs have many benefits, but are they as safe as internal combustion cars (ICE)? And is it possible that they are even safer?

The consent decree settlements between the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Volkswagen (VW) have made Florida eligible to receive over $166 million in funding through the Environment Mitigation Trust Agreement (EMT).

The infrastructure element that provides the crucial link between an Electric Vehicle (EV) with a depleted battery and the electrical source that will recharge those batteries is the Electric Vehicle Supply Equipment or EVSE.