An electric plug charges a Smart Car electric drive vehicle.Volkswagen of America plans to invest $10 million in electric vehicle charging infrastructure by 2016, the company said today.
Jorg Sommer, the company’s vice president of product marketing and strategy, said VW recently announced an initiative with Chargepoint to support development of express charging corridors along heavily-traveled routes on the East and West Coasts.
He said the company will also invest to support installation of charging stations in certain dealer locations, though no locations were named.
“In addition to the investment we and other companies and industries are making, we would like to see federal financing support for establishing fast charging networks in urban areas and interstate corridors,” Sommer said in a statement. “We’d like to see more state and federal organizations commit to cleaner fleets….”
Last month, VW unveiled at the Detroit auto show a hybrid version of a new sport utility vehicle the company is looking at producing, possibly at its Chattanooga plant. The Cross Coupe GTE is a slightly smaller version of its CrossBlue SUV which it already has committed to building in Chattanooga.