Electric Cars Report » charging stations

Coulomb Announces Availability of Residential Charging Stations for Electric Cars

admin — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 19:03:57 +0000

Coulomb Technologies announced the availability of its residential charging stations for electric cars.

The CT500 charging station is a 7.2 kw single output station designed for residential and light commercial applications. The station delivers Level II (208/240 V @ 30 A) charging and is compatible with plug-in electric cars that comply with the SAE J1772 plug-in electric car-charging standard.

The station’s small size and flexible network interfaces make it an ideal solution for utilities, homeowners, fleet managers, and auto manufacturers. The CT500 is compatible with Leviton’s recently announced Evr-Green EVSE installation system. This industry-first prewire mounting system provides for simple plug-in installation for new chargingstations.

Coulomb’s ChargePoint Network is open to all drivers of plug-in cars and provides authentication, management, and real-time control for the networked electric car chargingstations. The network of electric car charging stations is accessible to all plug-in drivers by making a toll free call to the 24/7 number on each charging station, or signing up for a ChargePoint Network monthly access plan and obtaining a ChargePoint ChargePass smart card.

The announcement expands Coulomb’s spectrum of products for EVs from home to Level III fast charging stations. CT500 charging stations will be sold through Coulomb’s OEM and distribution channels. The ChargePoint Network is based on an open interface, standards-based architecture that provides station owners with a complete set of business applications to market and bill for electric transportation fueling services, and provides drivers with EV charging applications to make fueling easy. The CT500 stations will be on display at the Plug-In 2010 Conference and Exposition in San Jose, California on 26-29 July.

[soource: Coulomb Technologies]

Elektromotive Powers Launches of Electric Cars

admin — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 16:13:33 +0000

British-based Elektromotive said today it will install 1,300 Elektrobay charging posts by 2012 in North East England.

Elektromotive, which is Europe’s leading EV infrastructure provider, is expected to supply the first 200 of its Elektrobay recharging posts to the regional development agency One North East during August.

The company’s simple-to-operate Elektrobay was first introduced in Westminster, London in 2006, and currently more than 135 units are installed across the UK capital. A further 165 Elektrobays operate in cities and shopping centres around Britain, including 40 that have already been installed in North East England.

Elektromotive was selected as one of the North East’s preferred suppliers thanks to the Elektrobay’s future-proof technical platform – providing, for example, the option of remote billing and fast charging – and its stylish, compact design.

Dozens of businesses and organisations have already signed up to the Plugged-In Places scheme in the North East, and the new posts will be installed soon at locations from Berwick to Teesside, including the Angel of the North, Gateshead; Claremont Road, Newcastle; Belmont Park & Ride, Durham; Hadrian’s Wall, Northumberland; Park Lane Interchange, Sunderland; Cobalt Business Park, North Tyneside; Souter Lighthouse, South Tyneside; Hartlepool Transport Interchange and Teesside University, Middlesbrough.

The fund which offers North East companies and organisations match-funding for charging points remains open – effectively enabling them to buy and install charging points for half the standard cost (around £2,500 instead of around £5,000), plus connection costs.

The Elektrobay EV recharging station is compatible with all pure electric and plug-in hybrid electric cars, and can be specifically adapted to suit the requirements of the installation site and the user.

AeroVironment to Install Electric Car Charging Stations in South Carolina

admin — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 12:38:00 +0000

Plug-In Carolina has selected AeroVironment to supply, install and support a network of public electric car charging stations in seven South Carolina cities.

AeroVironment will build 60 to 100 fueling stations for electric vehicles in seven South Carolina cities as part of a contract with the nonprofit Plug-In Carolina, which is sponsored by the state’s major utilities.

The charging network is expected to be operational by December 1, 2010 to support the variety of new electric cars entering the roadways.

The project is being funded largely through two state grants from the South Carolina Energy Office worth $480,000.

The fierce competition in this new industry sector can do nothing but give a push to the quick adoption of electric cars. According to a study released by Pike Research, as many as 4.7 million charge points will be installed worldwide from now and until the year 2015.

Ford to Offer Free Charging Stations for Electric Vehicle Owners

admin — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 16:53:39 +0000

Ford is partnering with Coulomb Technologies, nation’s leading infrastructure providers for electric vehicles, to provide free charging stations to nearly 5000 of its first electric vehicle customers.

Under the Ford Blue Oval ChargePoint Program, residents in nine designated markets could receive a free ChargePoint® Networked Charging Station with the purchase of a Ford Transit Connect Electric vehicle. The nine markets designated by Coulomb Technologies include Austin, Detroit, Los Angeles, New York, Orlando, Sacramento, the San Jose/San Francisco Bay Area, Redmond, Wash., and Washington D.C. The installation of ChargePoint charging stations will begin immediately.

The Ford Blue Oval ChargePoint Program is part of Coulomb Technologies’ $37 million ChargePoint America charging station infrastructure project made possible by a $15 million grant funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act through the Transportation Electrification Initiative administered by the Department of Energy.

Telekom Austria Turns Phone Boxes Into Electric Car Charging Stations

admin — Wed, 05 May 2010 12:49:10 +0000

Telekom Austria has announced plans to turn old telephone boxes into recharging stations for electric cars.

During the test phase the service will be free of charge. Following commercial launch, charging stations will offer the possibility to pay via mobile phone using text messages, paybox or a RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) card with a RFID chip.

13,500 telephone booths are currently operated by the company countrywide out of which 700 are multimedia stations and in the first roll out phase, the focus will again be on multimedia stations offering on-street parking opportunities for electric cars.

By year-end 2010 a total of 30 charging stations will be on stream.

Admittedly, the scheme is still in its infancy: there are just 223 electric cars currently registered in Austria at the moment, plus 3,559 hybrid cars, from a total 4.36 million cars on Austrian roads.

But the Austrian motor vehicle association VOeC is predicting that the number of electric vehicles will significantly increase in Austria over the next few years, with e-scooters exceeding 60,000 and electric cars 115,000 by 2015.

CHAdeMO to Standardize Electric Cars Chargers

admin — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 20:29:53 +0000

In a bid to promote the spread of the zero-emission vehicles Toyota, Nissan, Mitsubishi, Fuji Heavy Industries and the Tokyo Electric Power Company have formally established CHAdeMO Association to standardize fast-charge stations for electric cars.

Last August, Nissan, Mitsubishi Motors, Fuji Heavy Industries, and TEPCO started a preparatory committee. Then, TOYOTA joined the committee and the Association has been established with the five companies as its executive members.

As of today, 158 business entities and government bodies including 20 foreign companies are expected to join the Association, such as automakers, electric utilities, charger manufacturers, charging service providers, and other supporting groups.

The companies aim to make the technology the de facto global standard by promoting its use in markets in which they plan to roll out electric cars.

Electric cars are seen as one solution to meeting stricter environmental regulations because they have no tailpipe emissions. But they face hurdles such as costly batteries and a limited driving distance compared with conventional cars, as well as the lack of infrastructure to recharge when away from home.

CHAdeMO is going to promote the electric cars through the efforts of technical improvements of quick chargers, standardization activities of charging methods, and international extension of our knowledge related to quick-charger installations.

Beijing Plans Electric Bus Charging Stations

admin — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 11:53:51 +0000

Chinese capitol plans to transform part of the existing gasoline filling stations and increase the number of electric vehicle charging stations, making “integrated refuel and charge service stations” to provide both services.

Beijing will build more electric bus charging stations in the near future because the only station is unable to meet the increasing number of electric buses.

At present, the first batch of a total of 50 pure electric buses are already running, while the pilot charging stations established for this purpose have also begun operation. In addition, Beijing Municipal Science & Technology Commission has begun to study how to charge electric vehicles like taxis and passenger cars in fixed charging stations.

Beijing has proposed two modes planned for the charging stations.

In the first an electric vehicle enters the charging station and professional charging machines will charge automotive battery, in the same way as gas stations refuel their cars.

Another mode is when the electric vehicles enter the charging station the staff will remove the car battery and directly replace it with a new fully charged battery. Several hundred fully charged batteries will be reserved in the station, ready to be equipped to the buses, and only a few minutes are needed to change the batteries.

The cost of the charging stations is only 3 million yuan ($440,529), and an electric bus can run 220 kilometers (130 miles) on one charge.

[source: People’s Daily]

Pepco Opens First Electric Vehicle Charging Stations

admin — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 12:34:26 +0000

Pepco has opened two electric vehicle charging stations today and gave Chevrolet’s new Volt plug-in a quick “fill-up” before its debut at this week’s Washington Auto Show.

The company will purchase 10 Volts to support a study on the effects of vehicle charging on the electrical grid.

“We are excited to be at the forefront of developing an infrastructure to supply “fuel” for electric vehicles,” said Joseph M. Rigby, Chairman and CEO of Pepco Holdings, Inc. “This initiative will provide valuable information about the capabilities of electric vehicles and their growing impact on the grid as we transition to both the smart grid and an electrified transportation sector.”

With nearly every major automaker planning to introduce a plug-in electric vehicle over the next three years, Rigby said PHI is committed to working with the auto industry, the Department of Energy, local governments and the utility industry to overcome numerous challenges, including support for both a public and commercial charging infrastructure, affordable vehicle-charging rates and supportive permitting and codes for vehicle charging stations.

Rigby spoke at a news conference with General Motors’ officials at Pepco’s Edison Place garage on Eighth Street Northwest where two vehicle charging stations have been installed. Eight additional charging stations will be placed across PHI’s service areas in the District of Columbia, Maryland, Delaware and southern New Jersey when the company begins taking delivery of the Volts later this year.

The cars will be added to the company’s fleet and driven by employees as part of a two-year demonstration to assess the impact of these vehicles on the electric system and to evaluate their commercial application to the company’s fleet.

Smart meters and smart grid technologies will be incorporated with the charging stations to collect information about energy consumption and enable customers to recharge at the most economical time of day, such as during off-peak hours when electric demand is lowest.