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DRIVETHEARC Charging Corridor Breaks Ground in Northern California

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DRIVETHEARC EV fast charging corridor breaks ground in northern California

Every time it seems as if the electric vehicle, or EV, is gaining ground with American consumers, there are always the loud voices clamoring about the lack of charging stations between larger metropolitan areas. Nissan is working with the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO), The State of California Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development, Kanematsu, and EVgo to develop a corridor from Monterey to Lake Tahoe, California. It’s called DRIVETHEARC, and the system broke ground today in El Dorado Hills, California.


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The town of El Dorado Hills will be home to four DRIVETHEARC EV fast chargers, with a plan to install about 50 fast chargers along the about 300 miles between Monterey on the coast to Lake Tahoe on the state’s eastern border with Nevada. The partnership plans on charger installation to be complete by March of next year. The 50 chargers will be housed at about 20 high-traffic locations along the route. After they are installed, a study to be concluded in September 2020 will hope to learn more about which routes are the most popular and other decisions made by EV drivers.

“NEDO is committed to its best efforts to realize the objective of the demonstration project with Go-Biz and other California government agency (CEC, CARB, CalEPA, CPUC) support, EVgo’s cooperation as the local partner, and through Nissan and Kanematsu’s expertise and partnership in the execution of this project,” said Makoto Watanabe, executive director of NEDO. “We would like to contribute to solving environmental problems by promoting EV use, which will lead to reduced greenhouse gas emissions, and truly hope that we will be able to help create sustainable EV societies in the future.”


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Nissan is collaborating on this project as part of its ‘Infrastructure For All’ initiative to help drivers around the country have access to quick charging, making EV ownership more feasible. We can’t wait for more charging station strategies.