Nissan Americas and City Ventures – California’s builder of affordable, eco-friendly homes in urban locations – announced a cooperative project to pre-wire 190 Southern California townhomes currently under construction for electric vehicle chargers. The effort will result in the largest residential, electric vehicle pre-wiring project in the United States.
Every home in nearly every new City Ventures development will include pre-wired parking spaces or garages, allowing easy installation of a Level II (240v/40 amp) electric vehicle charging dock, the recommended method to charge the Nissan LEAF at home.
“Nissan applauds City Ventures’ vision and leadership to create a unique solution on such a large scale,” said Brendan Jones, Nissan’s director of Electric Vehicle Marketing and Sales Strategy. “Their model perfectly complements the accepted preference by EV owners to charge at home – including convenient charging during off-peak overnight hours - and is a meaningful step to help advance Nissan LEAF owner satisfaction.”
Because target customers for the Nissan LEAF and City Ventures’ residences share similar sensitivities and interests in environment issues, the project offers other benefits.
“City Ventures’ goal is to provide the most advanced and cost-effective solutions to buying a green home, including offering affordable solar-powered and all-electric homes,” added Herb Gardner, City Ventures’ President of Homebuilding. “By pre-wiring multi-family units, homeowners now have a simple, low-cost option to charge their all-electric Nissan LEAF at our all-electric home, and can even use the home’s solar panels to power their car. They’ll never have a gasoline or gas utility bill again resulting in a win-win for their pocketbooks and the environment.”
As the first phase of the plan, residents will be able to easily install home-charging equipment in single- or multi-family garage locations at City Ventures’ developments in Signal Hill (54 homes/108 parking spaces) and Santa Barbara (48 homes/100 parking spaces). A third location in Alhambra will also include mixed/public use garages (88 homes, 423 total parking spaces) as part of the venue’s retail layout. City Ventures plans to roll-out this approach to all of its new communities going forward.
For Nissan’s part, the company has consulted with City Ventures to exchange technical and charging information to help satisfy construction needs, and to better align with consumer charging habits. In addition, the two firms are discussing potential cross-promotional opportunities.
The effort by Nissan and City Ventures adds to a growing list of actions by public, private and residential organizations to enhance infrastructure and charging options which can accelerate the acceptance of electric vehicles, including: