By Brian McBride
Associate Editor

For anybody who chooses to drive an electric car to Buffalo Wild Wings in Osceola County, there will be a charge.

The business, at 3099 Formosa Gardens Blvd., Kissimmee, offers the first restaurant-based electric car charging station in Florida, said Andrew Gross, president and CEO of Sunshine Restaurant Corp, the franchisee of Buffalo Wild Wings.

The company will hold a special event from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Thursday at the Formosa Gardens restaurant to showcase the station, which will feature multiple displays and offer rides in electric vehicles, including the Chevrolet Volt and the Nissan Leaf.

Gross said the eatery chain chose to stand at the forefront and demonstrate its commitment to support electric cars because it just might be the way people start to get around.

“We figured it’s the way the future is going,” Gross said.

According to the Electric Drive Transportation Association, plug-in hybrid vehicles are expected to start rolling out from Bright Automotive, BYD, Ford, GM, Toyota and Volvo. And President Barrack Obama has called for 1 million plug-in electric drive vehicles on the roads by 2015.

Gross said he could envision a patron enjoying a ball game and a meal inside the restaurant, while charging up the electrical vehicle.

“It was just a natural fit,” Gross said.

Why this location? Because it’s near Walt Disney World and other tourist destinations, Gross said.

“It really made sense to do it there,” he said.

The station is already fully operational.

The event will be co-hosted by Progress Energy, which, according to its website, is committed to partnering with communities to confront the new energy realities of growing energy demand, global climate change and rising fuel costs. The utility provides power to some areas of Osceola County.

“As an electric utility, we are committed to ensuring that our customers’ energy needs are met,” utility spokesman Tim Leliedal said.

According to Progress Energy officials, electric transportation has many advantages over traditional gasoline vehicles. They include:

• Fueling at the plug instead of the pump is cheaper for consumers. As a transportation fuel, electricity is 50 percent to 75 percent less expensive than the equivalent cost of a gallon of gasoline. The diverse mix of energy sources used to generate the nation’s electricity supply is priced lower and is more stable than the cost of petroleum.

• The use of plug-in vehicles will reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Plug-in vehicles produce less carbon dioxide and pollutants than conventional internal-combustion engine vehicles or even standard hybrid cars. Widespread adoption of electric vehicles could reduce greenhouse gas emissions by more than 450 million metric tons by 2050 – equivalent to removing 82.5 million passenger vehicles from the road.

• Electric transportation can significantly decrease reliance on foreign oil. Transportation is wholly dependent on the use of oil, while oil makes up only 1 percent of electricity generation. A Pacific Northwest National Lab study concluded that 73 percent of all light-duty vehicles could be powered from the existing grid capacity resulting in a reduction of half of all oil imports.

• Plug-in vehicle technology offers the opportunity to use renewable and nuclear energy to achieve true zero emission driving.

• And new battery technologies can now achieve ranges of 100 to 200 miles for pure battery electric vehicles.

Gross said the charging station will be the first of many to come. Based in Longwood, Sunshine owns seven Buffalo Wing restaurants.

“Our goal is to put charging stations at as many (restaurants) places as possible,” Gross said.