Environmental Leader

Hawaii Governor Linda Lingle, in partnership with Better Place, plans to bring an electric-car network to the state.

Better Place, a mobility operator, plans to begin permitting for the network within the next year and start introducing the vehicles within 18 months, with mass-market availability of electric cars in 2012.

Hawaii joins Israel, Denmark, Australia and California in committing to the deployment of electric-car networks.

Hawaiian Electric companies and Better Place Hawaii have singed a memorandum of understanding to collaborate on the infrastructure and energy needs to power the network of public charging spots and battery swapping stations with renewable energy.

In January, the state signed the Hawaii Clean Energy Initiative, which aims to meet the state’s energy needs from 70 percent clean energy by 2030.

BMW and Vattenfall recently announced they would begin real-world electric car test in December.

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