Gatlinburg Press Releases

The City of Gatlinburg is now plugged into the nation’s electric vehicle (EV) infrastructure with the installation of Level II Blink Chargers at the City’s two downtown parking garages.
Gatlinburg is among the first municipalities to install the 240-volt Blink Wall Mount Chargers as a part of The EV Project. The stations are able to fully recharge an electric car battery in four to eight hours.
The EV Project, managed by ECOtality and funded by the Department of Energy through stimulus grants, will eventually provide the network to support the deployment of 8,300 electric vehicles. The goal is to build a nationwide infrastructure of public charging stations for electric vehicles.
“The charging stations provide electric vehicle owners a convenient method to charge their cars and is critical to extending the driving range of EVs to Gatlinburg,” said Cindy Cameron Ogle, City Manager. “We are excited to make these charging stations available to our residents as well as our visitors.”
The charging stations, each with two wall-mounted units, are located at the City’s Aquarium and Fred McMahan/Parkway parking garages.
“The EV Project installations in Gatlinburg support our micro-climate goals and align with the overall focus Tennessee places on sustainable tourism,” said Stephanie Cox, Tennessee area manager for ECOtality.
ECOtality targeted Gatlinburg as a preferred site for charging stations because the Smoky Mountains are popular with travelers. The new stations give electric car drivers the option of charging their vehicles on the eastern fringe of the “The Tennessee Triangle,” a 425-mile stretch of interstate highway connecting Nashville, Knoxville and Chattanooga.”
Tennessee is one of the pilot launch markets for The EV Project and has the largest geographic footprint of any EV Project area,” said Jonathan Read, CEO of ECOtality. “We are on track to electrify more than 500 miles of EV freeway throughout Tennessee.”
The EV Project is funded by a $114.8 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). The EV Project includes 16 states and major metropolitan areas, and calls for the installation of over 14,000 charging stations, over the course of three years.