Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn announced the creation of a network of charging stations for electric vehicles along Route 66 in Illinois that will be operational by summer, according to various media outlets, including the Alton Telegraph.
The Route 66 towns of Plainfield, Dwight, Pontiac, Normal, Lincoln, Springfield, Carlinville and Edwardsville each will have a charging station.
The $1 million project is being supported by auto manufacturers with technical assistance from the University of California-Davis.
The state has joined local governments and the private sector to create the Illinois Route 66 Electric Corridor, a partnership that connects communities along the 300-mile stretch from Lake Michigan to the Mississippi River in the Metro East area with a network of high-power EV charging stations. The network will make it possible for EV drivers to travel between Chicago and St. Louis, two of the key urban markets for EVs in the nation. […]
Each of the seven charging points in the network will include one fast charging station capable of charging vehicles with either CHAdeMO or SAE connectors within 15-20 minutes and one Level 2 (240/120 volt) charging station. Installation of the charging stations will begin this month, with targeted completion by summer 2015.
This is indeed good news for EV drivers in Illinois. According to the Plugshare map, there is only one high-power station between Chicago and St. Louis — in Normal. Slower charging stations exist on Route 66 in Berwyn, Atlanta, Springfield and Dwight. But a big 80-mile gap remained between Springfield and the metro-east of St. Louis.
Telsa Motors also has announced it would build a series of Supercharger stations with gaps of no more than 150 miles along the Route 66 corridor by sometime in 2015.
(Images of an EV station and the Ambler-Becker Texaco Station on Route 66 that hosts it in Dwight, Illinois, by Clark Isdale via Flickr)