The room for the electrical vehicle conference in Cleveland a few weeks ago was packed – with people and with questions.

The first thing they all acknowledged is Ohio’s roads are not packed with what they affectionately call “EVs.”

In fact, if Cleveland Public Power installs the three new charging stations as it plans by September, the state will have about one public charging station for roughly every six electric vehicles.

Cleveland Public Power’s Aliea McBooth is not discouraged. She describes it with words like “chicken and eggs.”  

“The misconception with electric vehicles is that you can’t buy an electric vehicle unless you have the charging infrastructure to handle that. So, with cities, if we don’t begin to prepare, people will not purchase them. … We need to make sure that we have the infrastructure to support those electric vehicles.”

Chicken about range
One of the biggest challenges for people in the business is what’s called “range anxiety.” People simply fear running out of charge with no place to go.

“When I do a class, first thing I do is ask how many people have run out of gas. And half the class usually raises their hands. They don’t stop driving gas cars, do they?” says David Bajzel, a distributor sales specialist with the Cleveland-based multi-billion-dollar Eaton Corporation.

“We do wind, solar. We do hydro stations. So we do the infrastructure now; it’s everything that goes in the back of the closet that nobody really sees.”

Eaton doesn’t actually build electric cars. It builds charging stations.  Bajzel points to a slick model that’s about 4 foot tall, maybe a foot thick.

“It’s all aluminum construction. The unit has a blue dial on here to let you know that it’s ready, and when the car is done it will show you on the right- hand side that the battery is full and that you can unplug the car." He acknowledges it looks like a new-age gas pump, and marketing is a big reason why.

Feeding power as well as using it 
Sometimes, Eaton pairs up with people like Chris Francis. He heads sales and installations for Alternative Energy Resources in Vermillion.

“That is an eight-stall solar carport, and basically you’re able to charge a vehicle, up to eight if you like on an eight-stall. And it also has solar panels on top so it’s actually feeding electricity back into the building to help offset the cost of charging the cars.”

Francis has installed multi-car ports in Beachwood and at GM plants (as in Volt-maker GM) at Parma and Lordstown.

And, he’s one of those three dozen electric-car owners in Ohio. He bought his Chevy Volt 3,000 miles ago. He’s bought about 30 gallons of gas for its range-extending feature since then.

It takes time 
Cleveland Public Power’s Aliea McBooth says comfort – with the supply as well as the car – is key.

“You pull into a gas station, you pick up the handle and you stick it in. Well, a charge is not different than that. You stick the handle into the tank and you charge your vehicle. … But (when) I pull into a gas station, it takes me five minutes and I’m on my way. How long am I talking about having to plug my car in? Well for the charging stations that Cleveland Public Power will be purchasing, it will be about two hours. So we needed to put these charging stations into places where we knew  people would be sitting for extended periods of time, i.e. the zoo location, because we know that when people go there, they’re at least going to be there for two hours.”

Besides the Cleveland Zoo, Cleveland Public Power will be putting a charging station in the downtown municipal parking garage and at a third location still undetermined. Each station will cost $5,000; $10,000 if it goes for the solar array.