ECOtality Meets with Vice President Biden to Discuss Recovery Act Success

ECOtality, Inc. a leader in clean electric transportation and storage technologies, today announced that it was part of a select group of leaders to meet in Phoenix with Vice President Joe Biden, for a detailed discussion of the success of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). ECOtality is the lead grantee for a stimulus award of nearly $100 million from the U.S. Department of Energy, and will implement The EV Project, the largest transportation electrification project in history.

Dr. Don Karner, CEO of eTec, a wholly-owned subsidiary of ECOtality, reported to the Vice President that swift progress has been made on The EV Project, which was launched October 1, 2009. Next year, the Project will deploy almost 5,000 zero-emissions electric vehicles and 11,210 charging stations in five states including Arizona, Washington, Oregon, California, and Tennessee.

Vice President Biden underscored the significance of the project. “It’s important that people understand this – we know that if the country doesn’t have this kind of capacity, electric vehicles will never reach full scale adoption.”

Mr. Karner, who has been involved in every major electric vehicle initiative in North America since the 1980’s, told the Vice President that jobs have been saved and even more jobs will be created as a direct result of the electrification grant.

Karner added that the detailed work of assessing each market is well underway. Engineers are studying the pilot markets, finding the best locations for charging stations, looking at various revenue models – including some that may allow consumers to charge for free or nearly so – and working with utilities to ensure the best use of technology to interface with electrical grids without straining the system. Karner said, “The Recovery Act gave us the opportunity to propose ideas to the Department of Energy that we had been working on for many years, and DOE agreed that they were worthwhile ideas.”

ECOtality, through eTec, is responsible for having created the algorithm that allows “fast charging,” the ability to put a meaningful charge into an electric vehicle in about fifteen minutes.

Along with the Vice President, Karner was joined by Mayor Phil Gordon of Phoenix, Phoenix Councilmen Tom Simplot, Michael Johnson and Michael Nowakowski, Phoenix Fire Chief Bob Khan and the new Phoenix City Manager, David Cavazos.

For more information about The EV Project, please visit http://www.theevproject.com/.

About ECOtality, Inc.

ECOtality, Inc. (OTCBB:ETLY), headquartered in Scottsdale, Arizona, is a leader in clean electric transportation and storage technologies. Through innovation, acquisitions, and strategic partnerships, ECOtality accelerates the market applicability of advanced electric technologies to replace carbon-based fuels. For more information about ECOtality, Inc., please visit www.ecotality.com.