North America's first public-use quick-charge station for EVs opens

Portland General Electric, Oregon’s largest utility, and NEC Corporation, a leading network, communications and information technology company, have opened North America’s first public-use, quick-charge station for electric vehicles.
January 31, 2012 Read time: 2 mins

1067 Portland General Electric, Oregon’s largest utility, and 1068 NEC Corporation, a leading network, communications and information technology company, have opened North America’s first public-use, quick-charge station for electric vehicles.

“By making charging convenient and available for public use, we are telling car manufacturers that Oregon is ready for the next generation of electric vehicles — and we want our state to be a leader in introducing these cars to the rest of the country.”

The station was awarded public-use certification by the City of Portland following the successful installation and testing of the station manufactured by Takasago, a subsidiary of NEC, at the PGE headquarters in the Two World Trade Center parking garage on Salmon Street, Portland. The Takasago Rapid Charging Station is specialised for recharging electric vehicles with lithium-ion batteries and requires only 20 to 30 minutes to recharge a battery to 80 percent of full strength.

PGE and NEC officially opened the quick-charge station with Governor Ted Kulongoski, who charged up an all-electric Nissan Leaf , during a two-day Leaf test drive event at PGE. Portland and the state of Oregon have been designated as top-tier launch markets for the Nissan Leaf when it goes on sale in the United States in December.

“Quick-charging stations are an exciting advancement in our effort to bring electric vehicles to Oregon,” said Gov. Kulongoski. “By making charging convenient and available for public use, we are telling car manufacturers that Oregon is ready for the next generation of electric vehicles, and we want our state to be a leader in introducing these cars to the rest of the country.”

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Singapore aims to set MaaS benchmark
    September 26, 2019
    Delegates at this year’s ITS World Congress in Singapore will be able to experience Mobility as a Service for themselves in the form of MobilityX’s Zipster app
    Read More
  • New EV chargers from ABB
    April 12, 2013
    Switzerland based ABB has launched the Terra SmartConnect (SC) fast chargers for electric vehicles (EV) in North America. Terra SC will be available with support for the CHAdeMO fast-charging standard, with SAE/combined charging system and will be made available in the Americas in second quarter of 2013. According to the company, the Terra SC can fully charge an electric car in thirty to 120 minutes and charge the battery of currently available EVs from 30 per cent to 80 per cent in about half an hour. The
    Read More
  • Hearing highlights economic importance of transportation system
    February 18, 2013
    The US Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure’s first hearing of the 113th Congress focused on the importance of infrastructure to the US economy and examined the role played by the Federal Government in ensuring safe, efficient, and reliable infrastructure. Chairman Bill Shuster highlighted how the quality of the nation’s infrastructure affects the lives of Americans in many ways on a daily basis, and how the Federal role in ensuring a strong transportation network is firmly rooted in the first day
    Read More
  • Secretary Foxx sends six-year transportation bill to Congress
    March 31, 2015
    Over the past year, US Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx has visited more than 100 communities and heard one common story about crumbling infrastructure and dwindling resources to fix it with. Foxx has now sent to Congress his solution to this problem: a long-term transportation bill that provides funding growth and certainty so that state and local governments can get back in the business of building things again. The Grow America Act reflects President Obama’s vision for a six-year, US$478 billion
    Read More

Highlighted Content