Sacramento Just Got A $44 Million Investment
Sacramento just got a big investment that will go towards supporting a couple electric car-sharing programs, and to help Sac go green.
By nowproducerdave on June 19, 2018
So, you know those electric scooters that are popping up all around San Francisco? They’ve been the center of a lot of news articles written by annoyed bloggers. There are also bikes that are popping up that you can rent out through an app in Sacramento. You’ve probably seen them parked at grocery stores, bars, and probably off in the woods somewhere. Well, Sacramento is getting an electric car sharing program, apparently.
Yeah, Sacramento, the Capital City, is getting an electric car sharing program. It’s being implemented by Electrify America, and it involves a few things. The idea is to make Sacramento a bit more “green,” (besides money green, obviously). City of Trees, Farm to Fork, and now “Green City” will have to fit on that water tower. Volkswagen is the parent company of Electrify America (remember their emissions thing from a few years ago?), and their mission is “Volkswagen’s electric car infrastructure subsidiary is working to make California’s capital a haven for zero-emissions vehicle adoption, regardless of income level.”
How it works. There will actually be two new car sharing services coming to town. The first one, called “Gig,” works the same way as the scooters and bikes. There’s a car you unlock through the app, and you can drive it around. Once you’re done, you can leave it anywhere within a certain area. The second service, called “Envoy,” lets you pick up a car from a certain spot and drive it around. This time though, you have to return it to that original spot. Next, there will also be investing in electric busses that will run between UC Davis and the downtown UC Davis Health.
What about charging all these electric cars and busses? Well, part of the plan is to add a whole bunch of charging stations around town. At the moment there are plans to add 10 of them in strategic locations. Who’s going to pay for the charging? In addition to a fee used to use any of the cars, some of the initial investment will be set aside to pay for the power use. Gig can start as early as quarter 1 next year, Envoy shortly after, and the busses by mid-late 2019. See some more info on Electrify America’s investment here.
