Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) announced the addition of Denver to Project Get Ready, an initiative helping cities to prepare for and welcome plug-in electric vehicles.

By joining Indianapolis, Ind., Raleigh, N.C., and Portland, Ore., Denver will become a pioneer in the adoption of efficient vehicles.

When asked about Project Get Ready, Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper said, “Denver has a long history of developing innovative programs to address growing environmental challenges. Project Get Ready will help the city prepare for the coming influx of plug-in hybrid and electric vehicles and remain on the cutting edge of our country’s transition to a cleaner transportation infrastructure.”

At present, cities pioneering the adoption of electric vehicles have no way to share best practices and lessons learned. Moreover, automakers have no way to track all the cities that are preparing for plug-in vehicles and no way to evaluate their progress. This missing connection has been cited by automakers as a critical barrier to committing to higher plug-in vehicle production.
Project Leader Matt Mattila added, “RMI knows that success requires coordinated action. Project Get Ready is a collaboration of communities developing and implementing plug-in adoption plans. By utilizing RMI’s universally recognized convening power, as well as detailed technical analysis, these leading communities will work with each other, RMI and Project Get Ready technical advisers to overcome perceived barriers related to technology, consumer demand, infrastructure and incentives.”
For Project Get Ready, RMI is specifically:

• Utilizing a dynamic web-based “menu” of strategic actions — based on input from technical advisers and cities already engaged in implementing plug-ins — that city and regional leaders can adopt to become a plug-in pioneers. RMI has analyzed the business case for each menu action from the perspective of several key stakeholders (e.g., city government, employers, consumers, etc.).

• Maintaining a web database of all national (and some international) plug-in readiness activities.

• Convening cities, as well as technical players, to regularly discuss the lessons learned and best practices, and reporting this information on www.projectgetready.com. Some partner cities have their own plans underway, while others are starting from scratch.

• Providing a benchmark that allows cities to prove that they are ready for mass adoption of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) and electric vehicles (EVs), and have taken meaningful steps to support this critical technology.

• Documenting the progress made by participant cities in order to help quantify future demand and make it more transparent to industry (how much, where, and what type of support to expect) for PHEVs and EVs.
This project is open to the public and can be followed by the initiative’s website at www.projectgetready.com.