PEV Coordinator Email

Dear Coordinators,

I’m writing to let you know about a new tool that’s soon to be launched on the AFDC: the Clean Cities Plug-In Vehicle Community Readiness Scorecard.

This new tool, scheduled to be launched in mid-August, collects information about a community’s PEV readiness, provides feedback on its progress, offers guidance for improvement, and suggests helpful resources.

As all of you know, PEV readiness demands coordination and collaboration among dozens of stakeholders, including utilities, charging equipment manufacturers, vehicle dealerships, metropolitan planning departments, electrical contractors and community organizations. The PEV Scorecard helps communities make sense of all the necessary steps and track their progress along the way.

Freely accessible on the AFDC (www.afdc.energy.gov/pev_readiness), the PEV Scorecard walks users through a variety of PEV readiness topics, including permitting and inspection processes for charging equipment installations, incentives and promotions, education and outreach, coordination with utilities, likely PEV adoption rates, and long-range infrastructure planning.

Within each topic, community representatives answer a series of multiple-choice questions related to their level of preparation. Communities receive scores for each topic, ranging from “Needs Improvement” to “Great Job.” The tool then provides customized recommendations, resources, and case studies to help communities raise their scores within each topic. A community’s scores and recommendations are private and cannot be viewed by other users of the tool.

Once a community begins its assessment, multiple representatives can return as often as needed to make updates and track progress. DOE encourages each community to designate a central point of contact who collaborates with local and regional stakeholders and coordinates their input when using the tool.

DOE and NREL would like your help in identifying the appropriate points of contact for the communities within your coalitions. By Sept. 1, please reach out to these individuals to let them know about the Clean Cities PEV Community Readiness Scorecard. Once you have made contact, please send Mike Simpson (mike.simpson@nrel.gov) each individual’s name, organizational affiliation, community/region covered, and email address. This will help us ensure that multiple plans aren’t being created for a single community, and it will allow us to better understand who is using the tool.

We hope you’ll find the Clean Cities PEV Community Readiness Scorecard to be a valuable tool in your on-going great work to deploy plug-in vehicles.

Many thanks,