ELK HORN -- Hoping to see the USA in your Chevrolet Volt or Nissan Leaf? The tiny Iowa town of Elk Horn will have plenty of electric charging stations and no wait -- if you can get there.

The town, more than 1,500 miles from the electric car mecca of California and hundreds of miles from the nearest charging station, has four of the devices ready to power up any electric vehicles that venture through western Iowa.

Mike Howard, the businessman financing a project that reflects his lifetime fascination with the possibilities of alternative energy, compares the plan to the Pony Express.

"They had to have stations to continue on to deliver the mail," Howard said. "This is a modern-day Pony Express."

Howard envisions the farm town of 650 people, whose other main attraction is a historic windmill imported from Denmark, as the first host of charging stations he wants to install along the Interstate 80 corridor through Iowa and eventually from Denver to Chicago. Four more charging stations are planned for next year.

Americans have been slow to transfer their loyalty from the internal-combustion

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engine, and plug-in hybrids and electric cars make up less than 1 percent of vehicles on U.S. roads. One of the biggest factors slowing growth is "charge anxiety" -- the fear of running out of juice and being stranded, said Phil Gott, director of automotive science and technology for the research company IHS Global Insight.

But concerns about global warming and U.S. dependence on foreign oil are expected to push electric-powered vehicles to 2 percent of those on the road by 2015 and 30 percent by 2030, Gott said.

The White House has established a $3.4 billion grant program aimed at developing electric vehicles and upgrading the power grid.