Owners of electric cars will soon have a place to charge their vehicles. Mayor Ed Lee recently announced that the city will be installing 80 new electric car charging stations. The stations will be located at city-owned parking garages, SFO and, possibly, select public libraries and installations will begin next month.

And while you’ll be able to use the stations for free, you’ll have to pay the parking garage fees if your car is using a charging station at that location.

According to the SF Chronicle, “Many of the stations will offer both 120-volt and 240-volt charging. The higher the voltage, the faster a car can charge. But even with 240 volts, it can take six to eight hours to fully charge a car.The city may experiment with a handful of 480-volt chargers, which can power a compatible electric car to 80 percent capacity in less than a half-hour.”

The cost of the program is around $500,000 and the source of the power is the Hetch Hetchy system.

For more, go here.

Photo credit: Brant Ward/The Chronicle

• Tag: electric cars, environment, gas