NC State unveils new electric vehicle charging stations on campus

By: Carly Swanson

RALEIGH—The Office of Sustainability at North Carolina State University put the campus community in the driver's seat at “Campus Sustainability Day” on Friday.

Participants celebrated the addition of two new electric vehicle charging stations on Centennial Campus. The new charging stations take the campus total to 16 and according to NCSU Sustainability Office Director Tracy Dixon, this is not the last of the electric vehicle charging stations that will be integrated.

“There will be more electric vehicle charging stations added to our vet school location and wildlife resources building in the near future,” Dixon said.

This is an initiative driven by organizations around the Triangle area who want to integrate environmental, social and economic sustainability into the culture of N.C. State and is supported by the Carolina Blue Skies and Green Jobs Initiative.

This initiative is led by Triangle J Council of Governments and according to their website, it is funded by a $12 million dollar American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) from the U.S. Department of Energy.

With the collaboration of local coalitions, this initiative provides expansion of alternative fuel vehicles and charging stations throughout the Triangle area.

At the event, the public was able to test drive full-size plug-in vehicles, such as the Nissan Leaf, the Chevrolet Volt and the Mitsubishi i-MiEV, which were provided by Michael Jordan Nissan, Bobby Murray Chevrolet and Leith Mitsubishi.

The NCSU EcoCAR 2 team also showed off their 2013 Chevy Malibu, which will be transformed into an eco-friendly vehicle over the course of the school year. This is all part of a competition with 14 other universities across the nation, established by the U.S. Department of Energy and General Motors. NCSU EcoCAR 2 is the only team from North Carolina that is part of this 3-year competition.

Participants walked away from this event with knowledge about the new electric vehicle charging stations on Centennial Campus, as well as a better understanding of Campus Sustainability's goal of'changing their state.'

Users of the 10 Centennial Campus charging stations will be able to charge cars for free for up to 4 hours at a time.