A Nissan Leaf parked in front of Enterprise Holdings' Clayton headquarters on July 15.Enterprise employees are taking test drives in the electric vehicle to familiarize themselves with the car.
Walgreens plans to install 20 charging stations for electric vehicles at its stores in the St. Louis area as part of a nationwide expansion of its charging station network.
A spokeswoman for Walgreens said the store locations are still being determined, but the charging stations should be in place by the end of the year.
The charging stations will allow people to charge their electric vehicles while they shop, for a fee. The fee for charging a vehicle is still being determined.
The locations will either be equipped with a high-speed direct current charger that can boost a vehicle's range by 30 miles in 10 minutes or a 'level 2' charger that adds 25 miles per hour.
On Thursday, Walgreens announced its plans to add 800 charging stations at store parking lots across the country, including Boston, Denver, Los Angeles, New York City, San Francisco and Washington, D.C. Walgreens previously installed 60 charging stations in the Chicago, Houston and Dallas metropolitan areas.
Nissan, which makes the Leaf electric vehicle, and Chevy, which makes the Volt, did not select St. Louis for the initial roll-out of electric car sales. Charging stations for electric vehicles are popping up with more frequency in cities where Leafs and Volts are sold, such as Los Angeles; Port land, Ore.; Riverside, Calif.; Sacramento; and San Francisco.
The St. Louis area does have a handful of electric charging stations, including the Moonrise Hotel in the Delmar Loop, Novus International's headquarters in St. Charles, and French Gerleman's office in Westport.
This month, Enterprise Holdings, the country's largest rental car company, announced it is adding electric vehicles to three additional markets: San Francisco, Seattle and Portland, Ore.
Enterprise operates Enterprise Rent-A-Car, Alamo and National car rental brands and already offers electric vehicles in Texas, Tennessee, Hawaii, New York and several California markets.
Enterprise brought a Nissan Leaf to its Clayton headquarters earlier this month to familiarize company employees with the cars, said Jeff Morrell, Enterprise's vice president of rental. Enterprise began offering electric vehicles in January and plans to offer 500 electric vehicles by early 2012. |
