Because two-thirds of S.F.'s population live in multi-unit housing and 80% of us are renters, planning for public charging stations for electric vehicles is rather complicated. As Bay City News reports, figuring out how to establish charging stations on city streets when a) the current technology requires six to eight hours for a full charge using a standard level-2 outlet, and b) most people are forced to street-park their cars, and you can't be charging your vehicle in a spot where there's street-cleaning, time limits, etc. In other words, the likelihood of anyone owning and electric vehicle who's a renter without a garage and a landlord who wants to install a charging station in said garage, is pretty slim!
San Francisco is scheduled, via a Planning Department plan, to have 80 electric vehicle charging stations installed at 20 locations by 2012. Most of those locations, however, are in municipal garages in the financial district, which kind of limits accessibility for people who would want to charge their cars overnight, and don't live in the Financial District. The good news is, through a special program, charging your electric car in the city and at SFO is going to be free of charge until the end of 2013.
Apparently there are also such things as DC fast-charge stations which get a car's battery 80% charged up in about 30 minutes, and even though this would make things much more convenient for everyone, this technology has not been "standardized."
