In Greenville, S.C., the First Shoots of an E.V. Ecosystem

September 21, 2012, 6:00 am

By JIM MOTAVALLI

“Environmental stewardship is not normally what you might expect from a town in the South, but we're pretty different,” David Sudduth, the mayor pro tem of Greenville, S.C., said on Thursday. “Innovation is pretty popular here.”

On Wednesday, the Environmental Protection Agency announced that its Clean Air Excellence Awards, a program in its 12th year, would go to 11 projects around the United States. One, in the Community Action category, went to the city and county of Greenville for their Electric Vehicle Ecosystem Pilot Project. The ambitious title applies to a countywide effort to put convenient electric transportation into use, with the involvement of, among others, Enterprise Rent-A-Car, G eneral Electric, Duke Energy, Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport and Thurso Power Systems, an installer and servicer of charging stations. There are 30 public and private partners involved in the Greenville project.

In a telephone interview, Mr. Sudduth noted that Greenville County had about 50 electric vehicle charging stations. The pilot project anticipates two central clusters, or pods, offering plug-in cars for rental: one downtown and the other at the airport. Local businesses also agreed to install charging stations.

The program was begun last year, with a Chevrolet Volt and Nissan Leaf available downtown through the WeCar car-sharing program, an initiative of Enterprise Rent-A-Car. The Volt and Leaf are in a public parking garage near a terminal shared by Greyhound and the city's GreenLink metro bus service. Proponents of the project note that linking with other modes of transportation makes the program more attractive and more environmentally fr iendly.

Members pay a $25 annual fee, which entitles them to reserve cars online and unlock them with a smart card. The E.V.'s have an hourly rate during the week of $11. WeCar has 100 car-sharing programs in more than 30 states and Canada, and almost 100 electric cars and plug-in hybrids.

Charging stations have been installed at the airport, but WeCar has not made E.V.'s available there. Enterprise maintains eight Nissan Leafs downtown in a conventional rental fleet and occasionally has electric cars available at the airport.

Lisa Martini, a spokeswoman for Enterprise, said in a telephone interview that Greenville had “a unique program because it features such a strong partnership in the community.”

“There's a very good chance of the program being successful,” she said.

G.E. has installed about 35 of its charging stations in the Greenville area, where it operates a gas turbine manufacturing plant. In a TEDx speech delivered in Greenvill e this year, Bradford Swann, a spokesman for G.E., called the city's program “a model for the future” because it was “replicable, scalable and sustainable.”

The E.P.A. said Greenville's program made it “one of the most E.V.-friendly areas in the world.” Mr. Sudduth framed the pilot project more modestly. “We're learning,” he said. “I'm seeing the cars getting used. We're trying.”