Those you who have ever had the opportunity to visit New York City, already know that gas stations are few and far between. So what about the the few of you that are ahead of the curve and own an electric vehicle? Where do you charge up?

Well your choices are limited, you could charge at home but that will take several hours or you could across town to where the city charges their electric fleet. But by the time you get to either of these place you might be pushing your vehicle to outlet.

A company called Beautiful Earth Group, is seeking to give New Yorkers more options when it comes to charging electric vehicles. Last week, BE took the wraps off their first charging station that is located in Red Hook, Brooklyn.

The charging station consists of two shipping containers that are painted green and are stacked on top of one another. The lower container is where your vehicle waits while it is being charged, while the upper container stores all the electrical equipment and a battery bank that control the charging station. On top of the container is an array of solar panels which convert solar energy into electrical energy that can be used to charge vehicles.

Though this does represent a first and major step toward making electric vehicles more practical, BE Group has not released any information on how much it will cost to charge a vehicle or how exactly this system will manage charging multiple vehicles simultaneously. All we know, is that this an innovative way to reuse shipping containers, while charging cars from a renewable source.

Source: Beautiful Earth Group via Inhabitat