Pa. connecting with electric cars, environmental advocacy group says

    With help from several area groups, electric cars may finally be taking off.

    At a news conference Wednesday, Philadelphia administrators, car dealers and environmentalists discussed a new PennEnvironment policy report that electric vehicles stand to make a big impact on car purchases and greenhouse gas emissions.

    Joe Spadaro, general manager of a Nissan dealership in Devon, says sales of the electric Nissan Leaf doubled from 2011 to 2012.

    He anticipates the market for electric cars will only improve.

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    “All of our customers that bought Leafs had a 240 charging station installed in their homes, and a couple of them had them installed in their businesses,” Spadaro said. “So the more demand, the more volume, the more they build, the more they sell, the price will go down. And I think a lot of people are looking at that.”

    Philadelphia has about 45 charging stations for electric cars. It was recently selected to receive federal grants to place hundreds more around the area over the next six months.

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