Banking on an imminent spike in the number of local electric car owners, the Berkeley City Council guided several of its commissions this week to continue work on developing a strategy for promoting electric vehicles in the city.
At its meeting Tuesday night, the council considered reports regarding electric vehicles from the city manager as well as three of the city’s commissions. The council directed the commissions to report back in the next six months with more information.
“I think the message I got from council was first of all, as usual, they want Berkeley to show some leadership on this issue,” said Timothy Burroughs, climate action coordinator for the city’s Office of Energy and Sustainable Development.
As electric vehicle policy continues to form, the city’s Energy Commission has created several guidelines to be considered, including suggesting that owners charge electric vehicles during “off-peak” hours — overnight from about 10 p.m. to 9 a.m.
Additionally, the city will need to consider charging options for those without off-street parking. The Public Works and Transportation commissions articulated concern about the private use of the public right-of-way. For instance, if a charging station were to be installed in a spot currently open for public parking and limited only to electric cars, this could prevent the public’s usage of the spot.
Another option would be to allow any vehicle to park next to a charging station. But that could result in under utilization of the spaces if they were continually occupied by non-electric vehicles, Burroughs said at the meeting.
Burroughs estimated in an interview that there are 64 electric cars owned in the city.
“We need to be a leader in this field — we can be, and we should be and I don’t want us to wait,” said Mayor Tom Bates at the meeting.
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