Electric and ethanol cars get $114M push in California

California made three grants to help build charging and fueling stations for electric or ethanol-powered vehicles as part of $114.3 million in state, federal and private funding.

The Golden State is combining $15.4 million of its own money with $49.6 million in federal stimulus funds and $49.3 million in private money on this program.

On Wednesday the California Energy Commission approved three grants:

• • $8 million to Electric Transportation Engineering Corp., which will work with Nissan to put 1,000 residential chargers and 1,300 commercial chargers (plus 60 fast chargers) for electric cars in San Diego County. Nissan will then test the effect of 1,000 of its Leaf electric cars on the power grid. The U.S. Department of Energy will contribute $39.35 million in stimulus money to this project, and its participants will pony up another $32.6 million.
• • $3.4 million to Coulomb Technologies to put 1,667 networked electric vehicle chargers in and around San Francisco, Sacramento and Los Angeles. The U.S. government will kick in $3.35 million in stimulus funding here, and private sources are giving a further $508,000.
• • $4 million for a project involving the state’s Department of General Services, Propel Fuels Inc., the East Bay Clean Cities Coalition, CALSTART and the Local Conservation Corps of California to increase availability of E-85, a type of ethanol vehicle fuel. The DOE is adding $6.9 million in stimulus money and private participants are adding $16.3 million. This project should create 450 jobs in the state.

Via the San Francisco Business Times.