A different type of highway now links Monterey and Lake Tahoe

DRIVETHEARC, a corridor of electric vehicle (EV) fast charging stations spanning from Monterey to Lake Tahoe, broke ground today with a ribbon cutting ceremony in El Dorado Hills, Calif.

The new EV travel highway is the result of an agreement between the State of California and New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO), Japan's largest public research and development company.

Also in this partnership is the Nissan Motor Co., Nissan North America, Kanematsu and EVgo.

DRIVETHEARC aims to increase the ease of long-distance EV travel along one of California’s most important travel arteries while studying EV use and driving patterns through a smartphone app that will provide a user-friendly charging experience.

"As the largest provider of open public fast charging, many Tesla drivers already use our stations and pay for the service," said Terry O’Day, VP of Product and Strategy at EVgo. "We anticipate Tesla drivers will continue to value our network services alongside their proprietary network. As Tesla continues to build upon its impressive sales results, our whole industry and indeed our air quality continue to benefit."

Announced at a press conference alongside the ribbon cutting ceremony at the site of four EV fast chargers, the DRIVEtheARC Station at Raley’s in El Dorado Hills, dignitaries from NEDO, Nissan, Kanematsu, EVgoand various California state government offices gathered to share details of the fast charging corridor and its potential impact in forwarding EV adoption in California. The project to collect and analyze data will be completed in September 2020, while installation of the 50 fast chargers along the corridor is expected to be completed by March 2017. This will provide drivers with multiple fast charging points per site at the more than 20 high-traffic locations that are part of the project.

For rate information, visit their website: https://www.evgo.com/charging-plans/

In the photo provided by EVgo : Tyson Eckerle, GO-Biz; Janea Scott, CEC; Hitoshi Kawaguchi, Nissan Motor Co.; Makoto Watanabe, NEDO; Phil Serna, CARB; Kaoru Tanigawa, Kanematsu; Shouici Nagayoshi, Japanese Consolate, Terry O’Day, EVgo.