Canberra gets wired up

Canberra will be the first Australian city to roll out an electric vehicle infrastructure, with the network set to be up and running in three years.

Construction of recharging spots in homes, offices, shopping centres and car parks is set to start in 2011 and completed in 2012.

The power used to recharge vehicles will be sourced from renewable energy.

Shai Agassi, chief executive of Better Place, which will build the network, said the dependence of Canberrans on vehicles to get around made it a perfect place for an electric vehicle infrastructure.