Free Juice

Best Buy, IKEA, Kohl’s, Macy’s, and ­Walgreens have begun installing free electric-car charging stations in their parking lots. After a successful start in California, Walgreens now has 385 hookups across the country and hopes of doubling that count. Government subsidies cover most of the expense while the electricity to charge an EV or plug-in hybrid costs only pennies per hour. Tesla joined the club with six solar-powered Supercharger stations (all in California) capable of adding 50% of a Model S’s charge in 30 minutes. Tesla says it will have more than 100 stations open in 2015. Australia needs to get on board this type of thinking so we can reduce our carbon emissions and move to a renewable energy source for our most common needs.  This forward thinking is an excellent incentive for people to shop at the shopping complexes and for consumers to purchase electric or electric hybrid vehicles.