Plug ’er up (don’t check the oil)

Plug ’er up (don’t check the oil)

Columbus Dispatch: Americans have yet to see how quickly or widely plug-in electric cars will catch on in this country; they’re still well out of the mainstream. But those who scoff at would-be electric pioneers should consider the similar fossil-fuel-powered evolution that unfolded a little more than a century ago.

The “filling station” was born, and the free market responded quickly to Americans’ instant love affair with driving, which persists to this day. No business is as ubiquitous across the American landscape as the gas station.

Now, as the electric era dawns (maybe), skeptics ask a similar question about electric cars: What do you do if you run out of juice? And companies that want to be part of the new evolution want to be in the vehicle-charging-station business.

Armed with a $100 million federal stimulus grant, an Arizona-based company called eTec is working with Nissan to set up mini-networks of charging stations in five cities.

Columbus hopes to enter the electric-vehicle industry next year, with a battery factory that could create 1,000 jobs in a former Lucent Technologies plant . Coda Automotive, a maker of all-electric cars, says it will build the factory if its application for a $400 million loan from the U.S. Department of Energy is successful.

The day when gas stations start to give way to charging stations may not be very far away.