OAKLAND, CA - Alameda County, in Northern California, recently received an $84,760 grant from the Bay Area Air Quality Management District (AQMD) for 40 electric vehicle charging stations in Oakland, San Leandro, Hayward and Dublin, the Oakland Tribune reports.

Doug Bond, transportation services manager for the county, said the funds and stations are necessary as the county brings back highway-ready electric cars into fleet.

He added that the county is looking to purchase five electric cars by the end of the year. Older electric cars have been cycled out of the fleet over the years, he said, and now the county's older recharging stations are primarily used for small, short-distance vehicles such as electric carts.

With the new cars, county officials devised a plan to build 40 new stations located at three garages the county uses in Oakland and Hayward, as well as at the Juvenile Justice Center in San Leandro and the Santa Rita Jail in Dublin.

Bond said the total bill for such a project is about $400,000, but with the money from the air district and the possibility of $200,000 in additional funding from the California Energy Commission, county costs should remain low.

Bond said the new stations will be used primarily to recharge county vehicles and other vehicles from local agencies in an effort to create an "electric vehicle corridor" for travel throughout the Bay Area. The stations also will be made available to the public, according to the Oakland Tribune.