The program is designed to appeal to residents, visitors, and business people, who will be able to reserve and drive a conveniently located electric vehicle by the hour, day or week from http://www.hertzondemand.co.uk.

The hourly rates will start from GBP5 and include in-car access to the Member Care Center, insurance, roadside assistance, maintenance, and cleaning. Membership in Hertz On Demand is free and will entitle members to use the operator’s other car clubs in the US, Europe and China.

The plan is that initially ten Nissan LEAF EVs will be available and situated in university campuses, street locations, station car parks, major employers’ car parks and other strategic locations across the city and surrounding areas.

The club cars will be recharged via the POLAR charging network for Oxford, which has 32 charging points operating in key locations throughout the city, with another 28 under construction. The charging network is supported by the Oxford Electric Vehicle Partnership (OEVP) led by Oxford Brookes University.

The Oxford charging network is part of the national electric vehicle charging infrastructure known as POLAR, and currently being rolled out by Chargemaster Plc.

In related news, Hertz has announced that Hertz On Demand and IBM are together piloting a program in Germany to advance electric vehicle (EV) mobility and user adoption through intelligent recharging solutions.

In a special agreement, Hertz On Demand in Germany will supply electric vehicles to the car share fleet used by IBM employees to drive between Stuttgart Airport and the company’s campus in Ehningen, about 30 km away.

Initially the electric cars provided by Hertz will be charged using decentralized generation of electricity on the IBM campus. The charging stations will be operated with intelligent IBM software that optimizes the usage of generated power by renewable energies. Furthermore, the software balances demand and availability of electricity power to prevent load peaks.

The companies are using this program as a field test to gauge acceptance and practicability of the electric vehicle and the intelligent recharging infrastructure usage. Upon success of the pilot program, they intend to add further electric vehicles to the Ehningen campus, as well as to extend the project to other IBM sites.

Discounted rates have been available to IBM staff since October 2011 as part of the special car sharing agreement in place between the IBM campus in Ehningen and Stuttgart Airport. From April, IBM’s frequent flyers will have one electric car at their disposal, with numbers increasing as the year goes on. The cars can be booked quickly and simply through the Hertz on Demand website using the IBM account.

Through strategic partnerships, the Province plans to spur development and investment in the electric vehicle industry and expand the availability of charging stations across Ontario.

Developing electric vehicle charging infrastructure is part of the Ontario government’s plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, create jobs, encourage electric vehicle use and improve the availability of electric vehicle charging stations. Electric vehicles support Ontario’s target to reduce greenhouse gases from the transportation sector.

Information gathered through the RFI process will help the province determine a strategy for expanding the availability of electric vehicle charging infrastructure and identify opportunities to partner with the public and private sectors to build, test and expand it.

Ontario has set a goal of having five percent of all new cars be electric by the year 2020. Electric vehicles provide many benefits to the environment and the economy by using clean energy resources instead of gasoline.

The province’s Electric Vehicle Incentive Program provides consumers between $5,000 and $8,500 toward the purchase or lease of eligible plug-in hybrid and battery electric vehicles purchased on or after July 1, 2010.

Infrastructure Ontario is managing the RFI process on behalf of the Ministry of Transportation. The RFI process is not part of a procurement process and RFI submissions will not be evaluated as part of any potential future procurement.

VINCI will install EV charging stations in carpool parking lots, with at least five spaces set aside for lectric vehicles in each lot. VINCI will build 738 carpool parking spaces between now and 2013.

In addition VINCI Autoroutes and Renault will work on installing quick-charging infrastructures in some motorway service plazas. This program will focus on the sections of the VINCI Autoroutes network most commonly used for short-distance journeys, particularly commuting. Three such sections are Paris – Orléans – Tours, Paris – Chartres – Le Mans and Arles – Montpellier.

Vinci said it would also add electric vehicles to its operating fleet, with first tangible operations slated to start by the end of 2011.

“The partnership with Renault shows we are determined to be an assertive player in sustainable mobility by offering customers motorways that are safer, more user-friendly and more environment-protective and encouraging them to drive differently,” said Vinci Autoroutes EVP Andre Broto.

Under an $820,000 contract from the Hawaii EV Ready Grants Program, the company will provide up to 320 AeroVironment 240-volt EV charging docks throughout the islands.

Once deployment is completed, Hawaii will have one of the nation’s first statewide public charging networks supporting electric vehicle drivers.

AeroVironment will partner with Hawaiian Electric Company to design and build public and semi-private charging stations at convenient locations for electric vehicle owners, including high-rise buildings, resorts and rental car facilities.

AeroVironment’s charging docks, including the two-port or four-port EVSE-RS+ and EVSE-CS (commercial) dock, will be strategically located throughout Oahu, Hawaii Island, Maui, and Kauai. AeroVironment has installed more than 1,000 charging docks in more than 300 communities across 18 states since November 2010.

The State of Hawaii is offering a rebate of up to $500 for installing charging docks through its Hawaii EV Ready Rebate Program. Customers who purchase an EV are also eligible for a state rebate of up to $4,500. In combination with the Hawaii EV Ready Grant Program and other development efforts, the rebates aim to establish the state as a leader in the clean transportation movement.

The Hawaii Natural Energy Institute, University of Hawaii at Manoa will work with AeroVironment and Hawaiian Electric to collect data from chargers to analyze the impact of electric vehicles and associated infrastructure on the power distribution grid.

Electric vehicles will begin shipping in volume across the United States in 2010. Charging stations will be needed to meet the growing consumer demand. Chargers will communicate with power grid to determine best times to charge, helping plug-in electric vehicles enter the mainstream.

The chargers integrate GE’s smart meters with Juice Technology’s Plug Smart™ engine to help consumers charge their cars during low-demand, lower cost time periods.

Smart chargers will hasten acceptance of plug-in cars by making them more attractive to both consumers and utilities. Consumers will benefit by receiving the lowest-possible charging rates for their cars. Utilities will be able to better control the demand for electricity and take on the added load of electric vehicles without over taxing their grids. Utilities will also realize greater value from their capital equipment during overnight and other low-demand times, when it is substantially less utilized.

GE will offer a comprehensive line of charging products that combine GE’s smart meter technology and communication capabilities with Juice Technologies’ patent-pending intelligent charging technology.

Initial chargers will be available in the United States in the second quarter of 2010, with full-scale production ramping up throughout the year. Global availability will follow.

The software, developed by eTec (Electric Transportation Engineering Corporation), a wholly-owned subsidiary of ECOtality, will be on display this week at the Electric Drive Transportation Association (EDTA) conference held in conjunction with the Washington Auto Show in Washington, D.C. A basic software demonstration can be viewed at www.theEVproject.com.

The hallmark of this signature software is convenience. Consumers will be able to use the networked portal to program the time of charge, for example, and choose the least expensive, ‘off-peak’ time periods in which to charge. Custom text and email alerts will remind drivers to plug in their vehicles, and will notify them when there is a change in charging activities – including whether a charge is complete or has been interrupted. To alleviate range anxiety, a GIS-based mapping system will help drivers find charging stations, identify how many chargers are available at a particular location and whether or not an individual charger is in use.

The software is being developed by ECOtality’s subsidiary, eTec, for The EV Project, the largest-ever rollout of electric-vehicle infrastructure in the United States. In August 2009, the company was awarded a cooperative federal grant of nearly $100 million from the U.S. Department of Energy, funded through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), to implement The EV Project.

The EV Project will establish approximately 11,210 electric vehicle charging stations in home-base, commercial and public locations to support the public adoption of plug-in vehicles in major markets in five states: Arizona (Phoenix & Tucson metropolitan areas), Washington (Seattle area), Oregon (Portland, Salem, Corvallis and Eugene), California (San Diego) and Tennessee (Chattanooga, Knoxville and Nashville). Use of the new software comes at no charge to the Project participants; data gathered through this pilot will help evaluate the overall effectiveness of The EV Project.