The city of London is moving ahead with both a carrot and stick approach when it comes to encouraging drivers to use more environmentally friendly vehicles. The infamous Congestion Charge clearly falls into the stick category. On the carrot side, the city has been experimenting for some time with public charging stations for electric vehicle operators. Ten new Juice Points have switched on around Westminster. The charging stations are set up in pairs at various locations. The first two trial units attracted 80 people to sign up. The city council hopes to have 200 users by the end of 2008. Drivers can plug in their vehicles for up to four hours at a time although most have been using two hours or less so far. The next task is to get Juice Points installed into the 48 parking garages in the city. The city would also like to get a battery exchange program going, but that probably isn't feasible since replacing high voltage batteries is not a trivial task and they aren't compatible between different cars.
[Source: SmartPlanet.com, thanks to Adam for the tip]
