As concern about society's dependence on petroleum-based transportation fuels increases, many see plug-in electric vehicles (PEV) as enablers to diversifying transportation energy sources. These vehicles, which include plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV), range-extended electric vehicles (EREV), and battery electric vehicles (BEV), draw some or all of their power from electricity stored in batteries, which are charged by the electric grid. In order for PEVs to be accepted by the mass market, electric charging infrastructure must also be deployed. Charging infrastructure must be safe, convenient, and financially sustainable. Additionally, electric utilities must be able to manage PEV charging demand on the electric grid. In the Fall of 2009, a large scale PEV infrastructure demonstration was launched to deploy an unprecedented number of PEVs and charging infrastructure. This demonstration, called The EV Project, is led by Electric Transportation Engineering Corporation (eTec) and funded by the U.S. Department of Energy. eTec is partnering with Nissan North America to deploy up to 4,700 Nissan Leaf BEVs and 11,210 charging units in five market areas in Arizona, California, Oregon, Tennessee, and Washington. With the assistance of the Idaho National Laboratory, eTec will collect and analyze data to characterize vehicle consumer driving and charging behavior, evaluate the effectiveness of charging infrastructure, and understand the impact of PEV charging on the electric grid. Trials of various revenue systems for commercial and public charging infrastructure will also be conducted. The ultimate goal of The EV Project is to capture lessons learned to enable the mass deployment of PEVs. This paper is the first in a series of papers documenting the progress and findings of The EV Project. This paper describes key research objectives of The EV Project and establishes the project background, including lessons learned from previous infrastructure deployment and PEV demonstrations. One such previous study was a PHEV demonstration conducted by the U.S. Department of Energy's Advanced Vehicle Testing Activity (AVTA), led by the Idaho National Laboratory (INL). AVTA's PHEV demonstration involved over 250 vehicles in the United States, Canada, and Finland. This paper summarizes driving and charging behavior observed in that demonstration, including the distribution of distance driven between charging events, charging frequency, and resulting proportion of operation charge depleting mode. Charging demand relative to time of day and day of the week will also be shown. Conclusions from the PHEV demonstration will be given which highlight the need for expanded analysis in The EV Project. For example, the AVTA PHEV demonstration showed that in the absence of controlled charging by the vehicle owner or electric utility, the majority of vehicles were charged in the evening hours, coincident with typical utility peak demand. Given this baseline, The EV Project will demonstrate the effects of consumer charge control and grid-side charge management on electricity demand. This paper will outline further analyses which will be performed by eTec and INL to documenting driving and charging behavior of vehicles operated in a infrastructure-rich environment.