Thomas Edison National Park In West Orange Gets Electric

WEST ORANGE, NJ — When inventor and futurist Thomas Edison parked his 1914 Detroit Electric Model 47 outside his brick laboratory building in West Orange, it’s anyone’s guess whether he could have anticipated that more than 100 years later, the location would also be the site of another technological innovation… an electric vehicle charging station.

On Wednesday, the Thomas Edison National Historical Park in West Orange received a jolt of juice when park officials switched on its first electric vehicle charging station, located in the laboratory complex’s visitor parking area.

The installation, the first of up to 100 electric vehicle charging stations that are being set up in national parks and nearby communities across the country, was made possible through a partnership with the National Park Service, National Park Foundation and BMW, park officials said.

“It was a great place to kick off the [program] as Edison had an electric car himself in 1897 and spent 10 years working on a marketable electric storage battery for electric cars,” Thomas Edison National Historical Park officials wrote on Facebook.

The charger will operate free of cost for the first six months, courtesy of BMW, officials said.

Officials said that they hope the new charging station will help to make America’s national parks more accessible to electric vehicle drivers.

“Electric vehicles have come a long way since Thomas Edison plugged his first electric car into a charging station in his own garage,” Acting National Park Service Director Michael Reynolds said. “Today’s EVs are clean, quiet, energy efficient and reduce greenhouse gas emissions which help to reduce air pollution in parks and local communities.”

According to the Thomas Edison National Historical Park, the West Orange laboratory is the birthplace of the perfected phonograph, motion pictures and the nickel-iron alkaline storage battery.

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Main photo courtesy of Thomas Edison National Historical Park