Turner said he wants to get the most out of his Volt by running on electricity as much as possible, but he has to get creative when finding ways to charge his vehicle.

“Right now, this is a pioneering age with electric vehicles,” said Turner, a network engineer at UNC’s Information Technology Services. “You kind of have to go out of your way and find these charging stations.”

But Turner and other electric car owners can avoid using gasoline with the placement of 16 electric vehicle charging stations around Orange County, 12 of them already installed.

The 12 charging stations installed during April and May are divided between Chapel Hill and Hillsborough.

Jeff Thompson, from Orange County Asset Management Services, said the ideal locations for charging stations are near transportation routes and public transportation.

All 16 stations are funded by the U.S. Department of Energy and the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which supplied a grant to the county for $84,530, Thompson said.

He said charging stations are classified according to three levels, with Level 1 having the lowest voltage and Level 3 the highest. The charging stations in Chapel Hill and Hillsborough will be 240 volt Level 2 stations.

“The Level 2 charging stations have higher voltage and can charge faster than Level 1,” Thompson said. “With Level 2, every hour that is charged gets 10 miles of travel.”

The Chevy Volt battery can power the car for 25 to 50 miles, according to General Motors. After that, the on-board gasoline generator provides electricity for the motor to continue operating the car.

Turner said the charging stations make his 35 mile commute more manageable by letting him charge his car while he is at work.

As an incentive for electric car owners, the charging stations offer free electricity and parking while the car is being charged.

The county recommends that electric car users limit their use to four hours, but this restriction is not a requirement. This allows users like Turner to leave their cars parked at the station even after they are fully charged.

“They are trying to be accommodating right now,” Turner said. “But we know that’s not going to last much longer.”

Still, he said he is willing to pay a fee for parking or electricity as long as the price is reasonable.

Among the hundreds of charging stations in North Carolina, only a small percentage charge for the electricity, said Jeff Barghout, director of transportation initiatives at Advanced Energy.

“A lot of stations are in that early pilot stage,” he said. “And many charging stations were put in through grant opportunities, so there was no cost to install them.”

But Barghout said Advanced Energy, and other similar organizations, are gathering information about these stations to determine the best pricing model for them.

He said he doesn’t know when the county will charge for using electricity, or how much the price will be.

While the cost of running these stations is still unknown, Turner said the charging stations show the public that electric vehicle technology is developing.

“The infrastructure put in place should be seen as common good,” he said. “But we still need to convince people that it’s worth investing in.”