With the long-term business model for public charging stations increasingly unclear, at least one carmaker beyond Tesla is boosting its efforts to promote the rollout of quick-charging stations for electric cars.

Nissan's EV Advantage program offers $10,000 to companies, groups, and others who install a publicly available quick-charging station using the CHAdeMO standard that's compatible with its Leaf electric cars.

The $10,000 payment is good through next March 31, and there's an additional bonus of $5,000 if the station is up and running by December 31 this year.

December 31 is also when a Federal Alternative Fuel Infrastructure tax credit expires, so there's a double incentive to get CHAdeMO stations up and running by the end of the year.

That tax credit--restored during "fiscal cliff" negotiations last year--covers 30 percent of the installation costs of a quick-charging station up to $30,000; it can be carried forward for 20 years or backward one year.

Net costs of installing electric-car quick charger by end of 2013 under Nissan EV Advantage program

Net costs of installing electric-car quick charger by end of 2013 under Nissan EV Advantage program

Nissan's senior manager of corporate communications, Brian Brockman, said the infrastructure incentive is offered across the country, but only in regions that have either high levels of Leaf ownership already or "where we see growth coming" in electric car sales.

Nissan says it's happy to help interested parties identify state and local incentives for installation of electric-car charging infrastructure as well.

Asked to name areas that would qualify, he quickly reeled off Portland (and other parts of Oregon), Seattle, San Francisco, Atlanta, Raleigh-Durham, and St. Louis as some likely candidates.

The company looks for proposals that site quick-charging stations within a quarter-mile of areas that are either residential--especially near multiple dwellings--or where people customarily stop for periods of time.

Those could include retail outlets, restaurants, office buildings, churches, hospitals, and other institutions, Brockman said.

The company suggests the cost of installing a CHAdeMO quick-charging station could be roughly $40,000, including the charger unit itself--Nissan has no preference on brand--plus materials, labor, and electric supply.

A chart provided by the company shows that amount reduced by the $12,000 Federal 30-percent credit and the $15,000 Nissan payment, resulting in an effective cost of just $13,000 if the quick-charging station is activated by the end of the year.

This incentive, Nissan notes, is meant for stations accessible to the public; subsidies for workplace charging infrastructure are evaluated under a separate Nissan program.

[hat tip: Kelly Carmichael]

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