SAN FRANCISCO -- ECOtality Inc., a company specializing in clean electric transportation and storage technologies, announced plans to partner with Daimler subsidiary car2go to provide charging infrastructure for an electric car-sharing program based in San Diego. 

Plans call for approximately 300 smart fortwo electric drive vehicles.

“As we deploy approximately 1,000 Blink charging stations in the San Diego region as part of The EV Project, we are creating the robust public infrastructure necessary for car2go’s program to succeed,” said Jonathan Read, CEO of ECOtality. “Together, we will show that EVs are a perfect fit for the lifestyle of San Diego drivers.”

Car2go’s all-electric program will begin in San Diego in late 2011. The company provides a total of more than 40,000 members with more than 1,000 low-emission smart fortwo vehicles in four cities.

“The launch of an all-electric vehicle fleet marks a new era in car-sharing in North America,” said Nicholas Cole, president and CEO of car2go N. A. LLC. “San Diego is a forward-thinking city determined to meet future transportation demands of its residents. Our goal is to complement the existing transportation infrastructure by providing an emission- free car-sharing service for short and spontaneous one-way trips.”

ECOtality is currently installing approximately 1,000 publicly available Blink charging stations throughout the San Diego region as part of the EV Project. Data collected by the charging stations will be analyzed to better understand how EV drivers charge their car, and help to guide future rollouts of commercial charging stations.

ECOtality is the project manager of the EV Project and will oversee the installation of approximately 14,000 commercial and residential charging stations in 18 major cities and metropolitan areas in six states and the District of Columbia. The project will provide an EV infrastructure to support the deployment of 8,300 EVs. The project is a public-private partnership, funded in part by the U.S. Department of Energy through a federal stimulus grant and made possible by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA).