News

Merkley plans electric vehicle road trip

June 29th, 2012

Oregon U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley announced at the EV Roadmap 5 conference that he will drive an all-electric vehicle from Portland to Ashland early next month to prove that such a trip is possible on the developing Electric Highway.

“EVs have an important role to play in reducing out dependence on foreign oil and greenhouse gas emissions,” Merkley told more than 100 people gathered at PGE’s downtown headquarters.

Merkley will be leaving from Electric Avenue, the short street lined with public charging stations at PSU, on July 2 and reach Ashland the next day.  He invited the owner of other EVs to join him.

A large part of the conference was spent discussing developments to support EVs that have occurred since the first conference held 30 months ago. Improvements can be seen through the installation of hundreds of public charging stations, including dozens along Interstate 5 as part of the electric highway project.

About 1,200 people in Oregon drive electric vehicles, participants were told, a number expected to slowly increase in coming years until improvements in battery technologies reduce their cost and increase their driving range.