Mayor Vows to Fill SF With Electric Cars

The streets of San Francisco might not be paved in gold, but they'll soon be clogged with electric cars if Mayor Gavin Newsom has anything to say about it. Newsom is in talks with Project Better Place to fill the city with electric car charging stations, a move that could push the technology into the mainstream. “It would be terrific if this happened,” said a Plug-In America co-founder.

Project Better Place is already planning similar networks for Israel and Denmark, but the San Francisco rollout would introduce the tech to the US, just as fully-electric cars become widely available. Nissan plans to have fully-electric cars in California by 2010, and thinks development would accelerate if the city was wired. But hold the champagne: Newsom might have trouble sealing the deal, given ‘Frisco’s oft-frustrating politics. (More San Francisco stories.)