Electric vehicle chargers sprouting at shopping centers in Japan

Low rates of charging, at only several hundred yen each, are unlikely to bring in substantial revenue, but convenience stores, supermarkets and gas stations hope that frequent use of battery chargers by drivers will help boost overall revenues from their mainstay operations. From the current fiscal year, which started in April, the Japanese government shoulders half of the costs of purchasing quick battery chargers, priced at about ¥3.5 million (US$37,562) each. The Tokyo metropolitan government and the government of Kanagawa Prefecture also launched their own subsidy programs. Major supermarket chain operator Aeon Co. installed quick charging equipment for electric vehicles at a new shopping center last autumn in Saitama Prefecture, north of Tokyo. Park24 Co., which operates 24-hour automated parking facilities, has installed a total of 19 battery chargers in parking lots in Tokyo and neighboring Kanagawa Prefecture. Showa Shell Sekiyu K.K. will soon install a high-speed battery charger at a gas station in Kanagawa, while Cosmo Oil Co. plans to do so at three gas stations in the same prefecture by March next year. (June 20, 2009)