Electric cars get more Danish support

trafficThe Danish utility company Dong Energy announced that it has signed an agreement with California-based electric battery charging company, Better Place, to implement a nationwide electric car-charging network in Denmark by 2011. The two groups have lined up nearly USD 103 million to build charging stations where drivers of electric vehicles can swap out or top up their depleted batteries.

Better Place’s focus is on building automated battery-swapping stations along major driving corridors. Their shops, akin to gas stations, allow drivers to either swap batteries or quickly charge up their own. This, reports CNet, will help address the hindering dilemma of driving range limitations that exist in current electric cars.

Better Place has signed agreements with several other governments, but Denmark will be the first country where the company has secured funding to set up the network of charging stations. Dong Energy will provide the electricity, much of which will come from its ever-growing wind farms. Denmark gets 20 percent of its electricity from wind turbines and will use the surplus in the new charging stations.

Dong Energy CEO Anders Eldrup commented: “Our goal in investing in Better Place Denmark is to help reduce CO2 emissions and increase the consumption of sustainable energy by capturing and leveraging wind power more efficiently.” Denmark levies no sales tax on electric cars to encourage their development.

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