Skip to main content

West Coast Electric Highway now extends to Canadian border

The border-to-border vision of the West Coast Electric Highway moved closer to becoming a reality this week with the opening of new EV charging sites, extending the highway to the Canadian border and opening it to electric vehicle (EV) drivers from both countries. The Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDoT), along with electric charging station partner AeroVironment opened ten new public charging stations—seven along Interstate 5 and three along US Route 2 in northern Washington – that provide
May 31, 2012 Read time: 2 mins
RSSThe border-to-border vision of the West Coast Electric Highway moved closer to becoming a reality this week with the opening of new EV charging sites, extending the highway to the Canadian border and opening it to electric vehicle (EV) drivers from both countries.

The 451 Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDoT), along with electric charging station partner 2132 AeroVironment opened ten new public charging stations—seven along Interstate 5 and three along US Route 2 in northern Washington – that provide EV drivers the ability to travel emission-free from Seattle to the Canadian border.

“Today moves us a giant step closer to the day when we can drive our electric cars from Bellingham, Washington to San Diego, California along Interstate 5, secure in the knowledge we can quickly recharge our vehicles along the way,” said Washington Governor Chris Gregoire.

Eight of the 10 new charging stations in Washington feature AeroVironment’s state of the art “DC fast chargers,” which deliver a full charge for a nearly-depleted EV battery in less than 30 minutes.

The West Coast Electric Highway is a vision for a transportation corridor from the Canadian to Mexican borders, connecting California, Oregon and Washington along I-5 that fully supports electric vehicles.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Green Light WIM
    July 30, 2012
    Beginning in the 1990s, Oregon was one of the first US states to use weigh-in-motion scales and transponder-based systems to enable trucks to avoid having to stop at weigh stations. Its Green Light preclearance system soon became a model for similar deployments throughout the country. Today, Green Light annually weighs and screens 1.6 million trucks as they approach 21 Oregon weigh stations and it preclears 1.5 million of them.
  • ‘Free’ power for signs, shelters and so much more
    March 17, 2016
    David Crawford looks at the sunny side of the street. Solar power has been relatively slow in entering the transport sector, but a current blossoming of activity bodes well for the large-scale harnessing of an alternative energy that is zero-emission at source and, in practical terms, infinitely renewable. Traffic management and traveller information systems, and actual vehicles, are all emerging as areas for deployment. Meanwhile roads themselves are being viewed as new-style, fossil fuel-free ‘power stati
  • Methanol range extender for fuel cell vehicle
    July 17, 2012
    The innovative QBeak electric car is to benefit from a sophisticated methanol fuel cell range extender that will give it a range of at least 800km. Development work is being carried out on the project by a consortium of Danish companies. The plan is to develop a novel, range-extended electric vehicle that uses biomethanol as a fuel source. TheModularEnergyCarrier concept (MECc) project has just been granted funding from the Danish government. The reworked electric car is expected to deliver high market pote
  • Truck platooning trials take to the highways
    July 24, 2017
    There is rising enthusiasm in America and beyond for the concept of truck platooning with trials being planned in several US states, as David Crawford reports. Growing numbers of US states are considering or implementing plans for trials of electronically-linked truck platooning on public road networks. This is in response to the interest being shown by the US$70bn a year road freight industry, where fuel represents 41% of the operating costs making the prospect of improving fuel economy by trucks travellin