California is nation’s key player in electric vehicle sales and development

mglover@sacbee.com Published Sunday, Jul. 22, 2012

California is the nation's electric vehicle capital, hands down.

We buy them: 4,645 electric car purchases in 2011, representing nearly 57 percent of the national total, according to Santa Monica-based Edmunds.com.

We build them: Tesla's electric sedan, the Model S, is assembled in Fremont.

We're preparing for them: Electric charging stations are being built up and down the state, as are hydrogen fueling stations for fuel cell vehicles.

Despite that, electric vehicles – EVs for short – have not yet created a multibillion-dollar, job-filling juggernaut statewide.

By most estimates, the industry has created a few thousand jobs statewide over the past decade, a drop in the bucket in a state that employs millions. And 4,645 EV sales in California last year represent a tiny percentage of nearly 1.3 million new vehicle sales in California in 2011.

Those immersed in the industry have a simple response: Just wait.

To read the entire article go to: http://www.sacbee.com/2012/07/22/4646208/california-is-nations-key-player.html

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