National parks are naturally concerned with environmental preservation and a handful are finding ways to encourage driving at the same time.
Yellowstone, Zion and Great Smoky Mountain National Parks all offer charging stations to EV drivers. As three major destinations for outdoor tourism, the parks are chipping away at the travel barrier many EV owners face — range limitation.
You might wonder if offering EV charging stations really helps the parks at all — after all, running power lines through national parks ruins the landscape, doesn’t it? It doesn’t have to and that’s what these three parks are proving. Rather than running power lines in, the charging stations draw their energy from solar panels.
Similar to the “superchargers” EV maker Tesla is dotting across the west coast, these systems can offer completely clean energy. While the California coast is probably considered by most concerned with EVs to be the Shangri-La of ev charging, the Great Smoky Moutnain park is a heavy contender. At least that’s the case when you look at most other areas in the U.S.
SEE ALSO: Tesla Supercharger Network Launched
In fact, there are a total 24 EV charging stations located strategically between the Tennessee and the park to allow easy electric travel.
[Source: Mother Nature Network]