Will New York Plan Jumpstart the Market for Electric Vehicles?

If the northeast region's relative lack of interest in electric cars can be attributed to the dreaded "rage anxiety" caused by a lack of charging stations (California currently has 1,200, or a thousand more than New York), than the plan recently announced by Governor Andrew Cuomo could make electric-car ownership in New York "less frightening," writes Rubinstein.

Admittedly, the $4.4 million cost of the project isn't "a particularly large public commitment." But, argues Rubinstein, "it does represent the sort of infrastructure investment that's going to be necessary to popularize electric cars, or at least make them more commercially feasible for manufacturers and, in turn, cheaper for consumers."

"The more chargers you put out there, the more comfortable people are with driving their vehicles longer range," said Colin Read, vice-president for a company that is deploying more than 12,000 chargers nationwide.

"But, he also said, 'In reality we need cars on the road to justify putting chargers out there.'"