Estonia's Electric Car Charging Network Opens
Published: 20.02.2013 14:43
Estonia's country-wide electric car charging network was officially opened today.
The network includes 151 charging stations and will attain an additional 14 by the summer, according to a press release from KredEx, the public agency in charge of building the network.
Although today marked the official opening, the charging points have already been used thousands of times, with the most active point being in Tartu. Officials estimate that it takes 20 to 40 minutes to charge a 16-kilowatt-per-hour battery from 0-80 percent of capacity.
Stations were installed on all major highways with a distance of 40-60 kilometers between stations. A hundred charging points were built in cities and towns and 63 were built on highways. That includes 27 in Tallinn, 10 in Tartu, five in Pärnu and two in Narva.
To use the service, one must sign a contract on www.elmo.ee, which offers three price packages. G4S, a security company, is responsible for customer service and can be called at 1911.
The network was financed by the Estonian government's CO2 quota deal with Mitsubishi Corporation in 2010.