Mayfield to lead Oregon charging station effort

Electric Transportation Engineering Corp. has picked David Mayfield to lead its push to install 2,000 electric vehicle charging stations throughout Oregon.

Phoenix-based eTec, a subsidiary of Scottsdale, Ariz.-based Ecotality Inc., secured a $100 million grant from U.S. Department of Energy in October to develop and install a network of more than 11,000 charging stations for electric vehicles across five states, including Oregon.

As part of that effort, the company is setting up regional offices in all five states, which includes Washington, California, Arizona and Tennessee.

In Oregon, that effort will be led by Mayfield, who joins eTec on Monday from Portland-based public planning firm Cogan Owens Cogan LLC, where he was a senior project manager.

A resume for Mayfield posted on the Cogan Web site refers to his 32 years of experience as a planner and manager of environmental, land use and transportation planning projects. He was a facilitator on Gov. Ted Kulongoski’s Alternative Fuels Vehicle Infrastructure Working Group.

From a Portland office, Mayfield will oversee eTec’s plan to roll out 2,000 charging stations around Portland, Eugene, Salem and Corvallis.

It’s a heavily detailed position that involves working alongside utilities and other stakeholders, as well as wading through the varying permit processes mandated across several jurisdictions.

“It’s more than just throwing up some chargers and hoping for the best,” said Jeanine L’Ecuyer, Ecotality’s vice president of communication.

L’Ecuyer said the company expects to begin installing the charging network in all five states by the end of the third quarter or early fourth quarter this year.

The project is a partnership with Nissan North America, which is expected to deploy 4,700 of its all-electric Leaf vehicles by the end of 2010.