Posts Tagged ‘California’
The North Bay is Getting a LiFe
by Loralee Stevens for the North Bay Business Journal, June 14, 2010
All-electric vehicle that can handle highways debuts in Santa Rosa
SANTA ROSA – Can incentives and rebates do for electric vehicles what they did for solar?
Jim and Barbara Bennett of Good Stuff Auto in Santa Rosa hope that’s the case as they debut the Wheego line of all-electric cars in the North Bay.
The 20-year purveyors of pre-owned BMWs are currently selling the low-speed Wheego Whip as a town car alternative to gas-powered vehicles. But this month they start taking orders for its highway-safe, high-speed sibling, the Wheego LiFe.
The LiFe joins the Nissan Leaf and Chevrolet Volt, both due out later this year, in the race to provide all-electric vehicles to the public.
“We think the LiFe will be the first affordable all-electric vehicle available in the country,” said Mr. Bennett. “Plus, they’re built in the U.S. and assembled in California.”
“Affordable” is a tricky term to apply to a vehicle powered by a lithium battery, which itself costs more than $10,000.
Most EV cars cost three times that in total, putting the lowest-cost cars in the mid $30,000 range, he said. The LiFe is expected to retail for $32,995.
But California’s Clean Vehicle Rebate Project has $4.1 million from the state EPA to promote zero-emission vehicles through 2015. Light-duty all-electric and plug-in hybrids earn $5,000.
Then there’s a federal tax incentive of up to $7,500, depending on battery capacity. The Nissan Leaf, also currently under development, and the Wheego LiFe, both qualify for the maximum amount, bringing the sticker price to about $20,500.
The Leaf is a sedan, while the LiFe seats two. Otherwise, both cars will go approximately 100 miles on a charge, which takes about six to eight hours on a standard outlet, less on a 220 volt outlet.
According to Wheego manager of corporate communications Susan Nicholson, the LiFe was retrofitted from a gasoline model vehicle, “which we think adds to highway safety.” Wheego is based in Atlanta, Ga.
Good Stuff Auto has the exclusive right to sell the Wheego line in Sonoma, Marin, Napa, Lake and Mendocino counties.
For more information visit www.goodstuffauto.com or www.wheego.net.
Good Stuff Auto to Sell Wheego Electric Cars
ATLANTA (June 8, 2010) – WHEEGO ELECTRIC CARS, manufacturer of all-electric vehicles, today announced it has appointed Good Stuff Auto as its dealer with exclusive rights to sell the Wheego Electric Car product line throughout Marin, Sonoma, Napa, Lake and Mendocino Counties in California.
Good Stuff Auto owners Jim and Barbara Bennett are adding an Electric Boutique to their twenty-year-old dealership. “There is a great deal of interest in Electric Vehicles in our area,” says Jim Bennett. “We think the Wheego Whip is a perfect addition to our Electric Boutique. It’s reasonably priced, stylish and fun to drive – but with no emissions, no gas and no noise. The Wheego vehicles are assembled in California, so we’re also happy about supporting another California business.”
Wheego President Jeff Boyd feels Good Stuff Auto is a good fit for the Wheego brand. “Californians have led the way in Electric Vehicle interest and usage,” says Boyd. “We anticipate tremendous demand for EVs and are excited to have signed Good Stuff Auto. Jim and Barbara Bennett have a proven twenty-year track record of offering their clients a very personal sales and service experience. Seventy percent of their sales are repeat or referral business. They will take good care of our customers, and we are happy to have them join us.”
The Wheego Whip LiFe Full-Speed all-electric car is expected this summer. The Whip LiFe runs on a lithium battery pack, and will go approximately 100 miles on a charge. The retail price on the Wheego Whip LiFe is $32,995; the Whip LiFe qualifies for a $7,500 Federal Tax Credit, and a $5,000 State of California Rebate. The LiFe is anticipated to be the first affordable all-electric car to be widely available in the U.S.
The Wheego Whip LSV (Low-Speed Vehicle) is available now at Good Stuff Auto and other dealers across the country. It runs on sealed lead-acid batteries and qualifies for a 10% Federal Tax Credit in 2010. With a sticker price of $18,995, the Wheego Whip LSV net price is just over $17,000. The Whip LSV is an “around-town” car, with a range of about 40 miles per charge and a maximum speed of 35mph. “The Wheego LSV isn’t going to be a family’s only car,” says Jim Bennett. “But if you commute daily in the LSV and use it for all your local errands, you’ll find you are leaving your ‘thirsty’ car in the garage two-thirds of the time. You’re using far less gas, you’re extending the life of your bigger car, and you’re lessening your carbon footprint. At the end of the summer, we’ll have the highway-ready LiFe available here as well. We are inviting everyone to come in and take the LSV for a spin to get a preview for how the full-speed will feel. We’ll start taking reservations this month for the full-speed. What’s happening in the Gulf of Mexico right now is awakening in people a need to do something positive for the environment, and to begin to move the U.S. toward oil independence and a cleaner future. We are excited about being a part of that positive change.”
Both Wheego Whip models are fully-loaded two-seat compact cars with fit, finish and features that compete with any other subcompact car on the market. Features include remote keyless entry, air conditioning, and MP3 stereo system.
About Wheego Electric Cars
Wheego Electric Cars is an innovation-driven and environmentally-conscious manufacturer of Electric Vehicles (EVs). Under the leadership of Mike McQuary, CEO and former MindSpring entrepreneur, Wheego Electric Cars has become a leader in the integration of advanced technology components. Wheego Electric Cars is one of the first EV companies to deliver affordable fully capable, street-legal electric cars for everyday consumer use. For more information about Wheego, visit the company website at wheego.net.
About Good Stuff Auto
Good Stuff Auto, owned by Jim and Barbara Bennett, is located at 1089 Santa Rosa Avenue in Santa Rosa, California. For more information about Good Stuff Auto, visit the company website at http://www.goodstuffauto.com or call 707-568-2515.
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All-electric cars – alternative to Utah’s high gas prices
Reported by: Kimberly Houk
SALT LAKE CITY (ABC 4 News) – A Utah man has found a way around Utah’s high gas prices
. He’s driving a car that’s unlike any other in the state.
Bruce Sharp drives a Wheego, an all-electric-car he bought in California. It runs on nothing but electricity, and it costs him less than $15.00 a month to drive it to and from work.
Sharp works as a hearing specialist. His office is not far from his home in North Salt Lake, which makes it easy for him to use. “I’ve gotten to the point where I’ve forgotten about fuel prices,” says Sharp.
As gas prices soar past $3.00 a gallon, Sharp spends an extra $12.50 more a month in electricity to charge his car over night.
The car cost him $19,000 to buy, but it hardly has to be maintained. “All you have is an electric motor. There is no carburetor, no oil to change. Engine completely clear at all times,” says Sharp.
The Wheego can only travel 40 miles before it has to be re-charged, but Sharp says it’s perfect for people like him who live within 20 miles of their job and can take back roads to get there.
This car can only go 40 miles per hour, but at the end of the day, instead of stopping for gas, Sharp just plugs his car into the wall.
Sharp has a pick-up truck he uses to drive long distances. It takes him 4 months to go through a tank of gas, because what he uses daily, is his Wheego.
There are currently companies working on creating all-electric-cars that can travel at freeway speeds.
City of Martinez Becomes 5th Bay Area City to Install Coulomb Technologies Electric Vehicle Charging Stations
Three ChargePoint Stations Located in Downtown Martinez to be Unveiled on Earth Day, 4/22/10, 11:00 am at City Hall
Business wire, April 21, 2020, CNBC.com
MARTINEZ, Calif., Apr 19, 2010 (BUSINESS WIRE) — The City of Martinez is proud to announce that it will become the fifth Bay Area city to install ChargePoint(R) Networked Charging Stations for Electric Vehicles (EV). The three 120V stations, manufactured by Coulomb Technologies, a leader in EV charging station infrastructure, are located in and around downtown Martinez, including one at City Hall; one at Main and Court streets; and one at the Amtrak Station.
The official unveiling takes place during a ribbon cutting ceremony at 11 a.m.
Pacific on Earth Day, Thursday, April 22, 2010 at Martinez City Hall, located at 525 Henrietta Street. City officials including Mayor Robert Schroder and representatives from Coulomb Technologies will be on hand for the ceremony, which will include a demonstration of the station in use with a Prius plug-in hybrid vehicle.
Installing the EV charging stations was important to the City of Martinez because it demonstrates support for cleaner transportation. Non-highway vehicle emissions accounted for almost 50 percent of the City’s overall greenhouse gas emissions in 2005. Affording the public convenient and accessible ways to utilize transportation options more friendly to the environment, such as charging stations for electric vehicles, is essential to the overall process of reducing the City’s carbon footprint and supports the goals of the City’s adopted Climate Action Plan.
The Martinez charging stations will be available for use by consumers for their personal electric vehicles, as well as by City staff to charge the City’s fleet of four electric vehicles used for local transportation in the downtown area.
Martinez joins San Jose, San Francisco, Walnut Creek and Pleasant Hill as Bay Area cities that have networked charging stations installed. Other areas in Northern California include Campbell, Sonoma County and Chico.
Vehicles that are currently being sold and that can use these charging stations include the Wheego, the GEM (Global Electric Motorcar) and the Prius plug-in hybrid. Other vehicles scheduled to come on the market in 2010 include the BMW Mini E, Tesla Roadster, Nissan Leaf, Chevy Volt, and Triac by Green Vehicles.
Anyone that comes to the unveiling event on April 22nd with one of the above plug-in vehicles will receive a card good for 10 free charging sessions.
“EV drivers have one more EV-friendly destination for their Bay Area travels as we welcome the City of Martinez to the ChargePoint Network,” said Richard Lowenthal, CEO of Coulomb Technologies. “These installations bring us one step closer to a metropolitan region where drivers can take their EV’s for all of their transportation needs and thereby reduce greenhouse gas emissions for a cleaner Bay Area that is less dependent on foreign oil.” Measure C funding for the three EV charging stations was provided by 511 Contra Costa (the transportation demand management agency for local jurisdictions and the county) and approved by TRANSPAC. The Measure C funds are 1/2 cent sales tax for transportation improvement projects and are collected through the Contra Costa Transportation Authority and used to deliver local projects and programs.
TRANSPAC is made up of elected officials and staff from each central Contra Costa County City (Pleasant Hill, Walnut Creek, Concord, Clayton, Martinez, and unincorporated portions of the county).
The network of electric vehicle 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 ChargePass(TM) smart card. Other future payment options include using any smart (RFID) credit/debit card to authorize a session or using a standard credit or debit card at a remote payment station (RPS) to pay for charging sessions. To locate available charging stations, visit mychargepoint.net and click “Find Stations.” About Coulomb Technologies, Inc.
Coulomb Technologies is the leader in electric vehicle charging station infrastructure with networked charging stations installed in municipalities and organizations worldwide. Coulomb provides a vehicle-charging infrastructure, with an open system driver network: the ChargePoint Network (www.mychargepoint.net) provides multiple web-based portals for Hosts, Fleet managers, Drivers, and Utilities, and ChargePoint Networked Charging Stations ranging in capability from 120 Volt to 240 Volt AC charging and up to 500 Volt DC charging. For more information, follow Coulomb on Twitter at twitter.com/coulombevi. Download the ChargePoint iPhone App.
SOURCE: Coulomb Technologies, Inc.
All Electric Cars – The Impact of the Little Guys
by John Voltz for Cleantech Blog, March 2, 2010
Recently, I made a small diversion from my walk to the office in San Francisco and took a ride in a Wheego. The Wheego was being showcased at Justin Herman Plaza right across from the Ferry Building not far from my office in the heart of the city’s Financial District. The Wheego is a brand new all-electric car from an interesting manufacturer in Georgia. Locally, the Wheego is sold at Ellis Brooks Auto Center. This intrigued me. Ellis Brooks is a venerable car name in San Francisco, having been around for 40+ years. I still remember their radio jingle from my childhood, “See Ellis Brooks today for your Chevrolet, corner of Bush and Van Ness . . .” The Ellis Brooks dealership now sells pre-owned cars and is no longer associated with GM. It has just begun selling the Wheego. Before I took my test drive, I had a chance to talk to Ellis Brooks’ grandson, John Brooks, about why they decided to sign up with Wheego. He seemed comfortable with the manufacturer in large part because the car was assembled from components made by manufacturers already in volume production of vehicles.
So how was the ride? Pretty good. It was quite roomy with a nice, quiet ride and a firm feel of the road. Allowing for the fact that it is a small two-seater coupe, it had the feel of real a car – not a golf cart or an experiment.
Now I should back up for a minute and explain that I have long been a skeptic that there will be significant adoption of all-electric vehicles any time soon. But this car changed my mind a bit.
My skepticism about this has been based on looking at the passenger car market and thinking about what it takes to succeed in that market. Then I compared the passenger car market to other potential electric vehicle markets.
Passenger cars have been the province of integrated high volume manufacturing, low margins, very high quality expectations (especially fit, finish and amenities), and very high service and support expectations. In short, the barriers to entry for this market seem quite daunting, especially when compared to the delivery truck market or the ATV market. These markets have significantly lower volumes, less integrated manufacturing (many manufacturers are essentially final assemblers), much lower quality expectations on fit, finish and amenities, and lower service and support expectations.
There are some low-volume passenger car manufacturers, but all make vehicles aimed at high priced specially markets, not low to mid priced daily drivers.
There is another big difference between the passenger car market and the delivery truck market – what delivery truck buyers want fits really well with what electric vehicles do best:
- predictable low to medium mileage daily duty cycle
- low noise
- excellent torque
- low total cost of ownership
With an electric delivery truck, you don’t need to worry that you’ll ever need to drive from San Francisco to L.A. to visit your sick aunt. In fact, for commercial trucks, limited range can be a plus – there’s no way for trucks to wander very far. With passenger cars, limited range is a big reason not to buy.
Given this, I have felt for some time that we wouldn’t see significant adoption of all-electric vehicles until we started seeing real traction in markets like delivery trucks. I expected passenger cars (and delivery trucks too to some degree) would likely first go hybrid, then shift the hybrid balance to more electric (e.g. using fuel to run a generator to extend the electric range), and then later shift to all electric. These successive market advances would be linked to gaining manufacturing scale, cost down of batteries and other components critical to all-electric vehicles (though batteries is the big one).
My Wheego ride today and my chat with the dealer changed my view. Here was an all-electric car, at a regular car dealer, with a high but regular car price, from a car manufacturer that nearly appeared out of thin air. You see Wheego as a manufacturer is just a final assembler. From my initial quick look, Wheego came on the scene as a passenger car player in 2007 or so, backed by the former founder of MindSpring. Before then, it was exclusively an electric golf cart manufacturer. So it’s really been an eye blink in automotive time scale (2007 to 2010) to see cars turning up at dealerships. Granted, the model at dealers today and the one that I test drove is just a medium speed vehicle (MSV) with a top speed of 35 MPH and not for highway usage (more on that later). But this was still impressive to me.
Wheego gets the car bodies from a big manufacturer in China (a body that is currently used for gas drive cars in other international markets). It gets its motors from a Wisconsin electric motor manufacturer and its motor controller from Curtis Instruments who makes controllers for forklifts. Maybe the truck style manufacturing could work for passenger cars after all.
In addition, I began to think about the current passenger car market for all-electrics. There probably is a significant market for all-electric vehicles, even in the current economy, and even if they aren’t strictly ‘economic’ on a dollar per mile basis compared to gas or hybrid cars. Think about how much the early EV1 cost in its day[1], and how people still rave about it years and years later. In my revised view, I think there will be a small but significant true believer market in the U.S. for all-electric cars. Yes, the big boys are coming – Nissan with the Leaf, Chevy with the Volt, Ford with the Focus EV, but not for a year, maybe two, maybe more. In the mean time, the true believer market will be served by the likes of Wheego, Think, Smart, and others. Even after Nissan, Chevy, Ford and other big car companies arrive in the market, the early entrants may have continued success. Plus they may have customers and EV infrastructure that car manufacturers with non-existent, dormant, or failing EV programs may look to acquire. There is no substitute for firsthand customer knowledge.
The Wheego I drove was a medium speed vehicle (MSV) with a max speed 35 MPH and a real world range of 40 miles. The highway speed version is on the way – due to arrive this summer. It is currently undergoing NTHSA cash testing. It will have a top speed of 65 MPH and a range of 100 miles. The high speed vehicle (HSV) Wheego will not be a lot different than the MSV. Differences include: lithium ion batteries, airbags, and some additional structure supports to the body.
I now see the all-electric car market developing from two converging paths – the true believer all-electric passenger car market and the more economically driven all-electric truck and fleet vehicle markets. The true believer market will drive visibility and customer expectations, and provide valuable real world feedback about what electric car consumers care about and will pay for. While the truck and fleet markets will help dive down cost, I expect both will speed the adoption all-electric cars to a significant portion of the passenger car market.
So for you true believers out there, price before incentives for the MSV Wheego is ~$19K (and it’s eligible for a 10% Federal tax credit) putting the MSV price around $17K before any state or local incentives. Prices for the HSV have not yet been announced, but the target price is in the $30K range (and it will be eligible for a $7500 federal tax credit) putting the net cost of the HSV before state and local incentives in the roughly in the mid $20K range.
[1] The EV1 had a nominal low price of $34K or ~$48K in today’s dollars though it was never sold only leased. Reportedly production costs were $80+K per vehicle at the time. Initial lease costs were $640/month or $900/month in today’s dollars. Later this dropped to $350/month or $ 500/mo in today’s dollars with many different incentives layered on.
Atlanta Electric Car Company Plugs into Bay Area Market
by Kamala Kelkar for the San Francisco Examiner, February 18, 2010
All-electric car manufacturers from Atlanta are using the Bay Area as a hub to sell their two-seater vehicles, which can reach 35 mph, plug in like a refrigerator and cost about $19,000.

Wheego signed a contract with family-owned dealer Ellis Brooks — located at 1395 Van Ness Ave. in The City — and will offer test drives from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday.
The company has been selling about 100 cars a month since October through about 20 dealers nationwide. It’s relying on the Bay Area to kick up sales because “it’s either the No. 1 or No. 2 market for new technology adopters,” Wheego President Jeff Boyd said.
The vehicle runs on sealed, lead-acid batteries, charges overnight and uses 90 percent fewer moving parts than a gas engine, Boyd said.
Wheego also is planning to release a higher-speed vehicle that can reach about 65 mph in the summer, but takes up about twice the amount of energy and would probably require an upgrade to outlets at home or a plug-in station.
There are about 25 plug-in stations in The City and about 10 in San Mateo County. However, Plug-In Bay Area, a coalition of electric and solar companies including PG&E, is banking on a $12 million state grant to add more stations and make upgrades.
Charging your car
There are about 130 charging sites in the Bay Area. About 25 of them are in San Francisco.
The City: Civic Center parking garage; Costco; General Hospital; Hyatt at Fisherman’s Wharf; Palace Hotel; Presidio Main Post; Toyota, Honda and Ford dealerships; SFO
SAN MATEO COUNTY
Colma: BART; Saturn dealership
Menlo Park: Sun Microsystems building
Redwood City: Electronic Arts
San Carlos: Liberate Technologies (by arrangement only)
South San Francisco: Costco
Source: www.evchargernews.com/regions/ch-bay-all.html
kkelkar@sfexaminer.com
Read more at the San Francisco Examiner: http://www.sfexaminer.com/local/Atlanta-electric-car-company-plugs-into-Bay-Area-market-84658442.html#ixzz0ftcjh9C7
Ellis Brooks Auto Center to Sell Wheego Electric Cars
Atlanta, Georgia (February 17, 2010) – WHEEGO ELECTRIC CARS, manufacturer of all-electric vehicles, today announced it has signed Ellis Brooks Auto Center as its dealer with exclusive rights to sell the Wheego Electric Car product line throughout California’s San Francisco Bay Area Including San Mateo, Santa Cruz, Monterey and San Francisco Counties.
Wheego President Jeff Boyd says Wheego is targeting successful dealers such as Ellis Brooks who are interested in looking to the future with Electric Vehicles. “Ellis Brooks has the right culture, customer base, and location,” explains Boyd. “They are green in terms of the environment, but certainly not in terms of experience. They are seasoned professionals, and they will hit the ground running. Our low-speed vehicle is shipping now, and our full speed all electric car, named LiFe will be available to customers at Ellis Brooks Auto this summer.”
Ellis Brooks Auto Center, a family-run business, was established in San Francisco in 1939. John Brooks is the General Manager; his uncle Arthur is the Production Manager, and their mother/Grandmother, Marie Brooks, overseas the family’s auto holdings including Ellis Brooks Motors in Yreka, California. The Brooks family sees Electric Vehicles as the future of the automotive industry. “We have weathered many economic cycles since 1939,” says Mrs. Brooks. “We’ve remained relevant and competitive because we listen to what our customers want. And what they are asking for now… is electric cars. The Wheego cars are all electric – no gas, no emissions. We are excited to be able to deliver an eco-friendly, affordable and innovative car to San Francisco.”
Ellis Brooks will introduce the Wheego Whip to San Francisco with a test-drive event at their dealership on February 20. “We think people will be surprised at the performance and affordability of this car,” said GM John Brooks. “We invite the public, fleet purchasers and local media to take it for a spin.” The event will be open from 9:00a.m to 6:00 p.m. on Saturday February 20th.
The Wheego Whip LSV (Low-Speed Vehicle) runs on sealed lead-acid batteries and qualifies for a 10% Federal Tax Credit in 2010. With a sticker price of $18,995, the Wheego Whip LSV net price is just over $17,000.
The Wheego Whip LiFe Full-Speed all-electric car is expected in the summer of 2010. A prototype of the car was unveiled in January at the Washington D.C. Auto Show. The Whip LiFe runs on a lithium battery pack, and will go approximately 100 miles on a charge. The sticker price on the Wheego Whip LiFe is targeted for the low $30k’s; the Whip LiFe qualifies for a $7500 Federal Tax Credit. Interested customers may reserve a car at Wheego.net/life.
Both Wheego Whip models are fully-loaded two-seat compact cars with fit, finish and features that compete with any other subcompact car on the market. Features include remote keyless entry, air conditioning, and MP3 stereo system.
About Wheego Electric Cars
Wheego Electric Cars is an innovation-driven and environmentally-conscious manufacturer of Electric Vehicles (EVs). Under the leadership of Mike McQuary, CEO and former MindSpring entrepreneur, Wheego Electric Cars has become a leader in the integration of advanced technology components. Wheego Electric Cars is one of the first EV companies to deliver affordable fully capable, street legal electric cars for everyday consumer use. For more information about Wheego, visit the company website at wheego.net.
About Ellis Brooks Auto Center
Established in 1939, Ellis Brooks Auto Center is located in the heart of San Francisco at 1395 Van Ness Avenue. Customer loyalty, satisfaction and repeat business are the cornerstones of the company. Ellis Brooks offers high-quality used cars and Wheego Electric vehicles. For more information about Ellis Brooks Auto, visit the company website at www.ellisbrooks.com or call 415-776-2400.
Flux Power Selected as Advanced Energy Storage System Provider for Wheego Highway Speed EVs
Earth Times, January 29, 2010 SAN DIEGO – (Business Wire) Flux Power Incorporated, a developer of advanced energy storage technologies, today announced a battery supply agreement with Wheego Electric Cars, a new American automaker building environmentally conscious electric vehicles. The supply agreement is for energy storage systems for Wheego’s new Full Speed Vehicles (FSVs) as well as their premium Low Speed Vehicles (LSVs). The Wheego Whip LiFe FSV, which was announced this week and is expected to ship this summer, will be one of the cleanest, most energy efficient highway capable cars in the world. This new vehicle offers superior style and performance while utilizing Flux Power’s advanced energy storage solutions to give it maximum agility and range.
Flux Power will provide Wheego Electric Cars with advanced energy systems that combine high power and energy density with excellent safety and life cycle performance. These systems include Flux Power’s “Cell Guard™” Technology that extends the life of lithium batteries.
“Wheego Electric Cars selected Flux Power because of the company’s ability to meet our performance and durability metrics along with their capacity to rapidly scale to our volume production,” said Wheego CEO Mike McQuary. “Flux Power’s technology has allowed us to develop the world’s most environmentally friendly cars which don’t sacrifice style, safety, or performance.”
The supply agreement provides that Flux Power is the selected advanced energy storage system supplier for Wheego Electric Cars. Flux Power is manufacturing energy storage modules in Southern California and working with Wheego at their Atlanta, Georgia, facility for durability and impact strategy development work.
“It has been great to work with Wheego throughout their vehicle development process. After seeing how great their EVs have performed in range and preliminary safety testing, it shows us how well Wheego has engineered these vehicles,” said Chris Anthony, CEO of Flux Power. “Flux Power is excited to help an innovative American company like Wheego advance the future of transportation, reduce America’s dependence on foreign oil, and decrease greenhouse gas emissions.”
The Wheego Whip FSV has a target range of 100 miles on a single charge of Flux Power’s lithium storage system and features intuitive interior styling and beautiful exterior looks. With a top speed of 65 mph, it is also a nimble vehicle with space enough for two, ample storage and creature comforts.
About Flux Power Incorporated:
Flux Power, a spin-off of LHV Power (formerly known as HiTek Power Corporation) has developed innovative high power battery cell management systems that have proven to greatly extend cycle life. Flux Power couples this with a robust communication system to provide accurate and timely data on numerous cell metrics. To display all of this data, Flux Power has a suite of display systems and diagnostic utilities to help clients get the most value out of the information available. In addition, Flux Power has smart charging systems that are versatile and stackable to multiple charging configurations, while communicating directly with each cell to make sure the most beneficial charge is available. Flux Power has manufacturing capabilities in both Asia and the US with ISO-9001 quality to assure superior products to many different industries. www.FLUXpwr.com
Flux and Flux Power are trademarks or registered trademarks of Flux Power Inc. in the United States and/or in other countries. All other brands, products or service names are or may be trademarks, registered trademarks or service marks of, and used to identify, products or services of their respective owners.
Flux Power Incorporated
Sarah Mori, Media Relations
866-972-FLUX
Sarah@FLUXpwr.com
Pleasant Hill Becomes 4th Bay Area City to Install Coulomb Charging Stations for Electric Vehicles
UPI.com, December 9, 2009
Santa Claus to Unveil New ChargePoint Networked Charging Stations on December 10th
The City of Pleasant Hill announced today that Santa Claus will make a guest appearance in his plug-in Prius as he stops by to charge up at Pleasant Hill City Hall. Pleasant Hill has become the fourth Bay Area city to deploy the ChargePoint® Networked Charging Stations for Electric Vehicles (EV). Manufactured by Coulomb Technologies, the charging stations will be made operational in the city during a special holiday season unveiling ceremony on December 10, 2009 at 11:00 a.m. at the City Hall Parking Lot, 100 Gregory Lane.
Children from the 2nd grade class of Sequoia Elementary School will be on hand to welcome Santa along with the Mayor and members of the City Council. Others attending will include members of TRANSPAC, the regional transportation planning committee for central Contra Costa, and the Pleasant Hill Chamber of Commerce.
The other two ChargePoint Networked EV Charging Stations are installed in the public parking garage in the heart of Downtown Pleasant Hill and at the Public Service Center at 310 Civic Drive.
Vehicles that are currently being sold and that can use these charging stations include the Wheego, the GEM (Global Electric Motorcar) and the Prius plug-in hybrid. Other vehicles scheduled to come on the market in 2010 include the BMW Mini E, Tesla Roadster, Nissan Leaf, Chevy Volt, and Triac by Green Vehicles.
A key city of the East Bay Area, Pleasant Hill is known for its outdoor festivals, college campuses and superb shopping and dining. EV owners across the Bay Area now have a premier place where they can recharge while enjoying Downtown Pleasant Hill.
“This installation in Pleasant Hill gives Contra Costa County the distinction of first county in the nation to feature neighboring cities with networked charging stations for electric vehicles,” said Richard Lowenthal, CEO of Coulomb Technologies. “Infrastructure for EV’s is taking shape in the Bay Area.”
Measure C funding for the three EV charging stations was provided by 511 Contra Costa (the transportation demand management agency for local jurisdictions and the county) and approved by TRANSPAC. The Measure C funds are ½ cent sales tax for transportation improvement projects and are collected through the Contra Costa Transportation Authority and used to deliver local projects and programs. TRANSPAC is made up of elected officials and staff from each central Contra Costa County City (Pleasant Hill, Walnut Creek, Concord, Clayton, Martinez, and unincorporated portions of the county).
About Coulomb Technologies, Inc.
Coulomb Technologies is the leader in electric vehicle charging station infrastructure with networked charging stations installed in municipalities and organizations worldwide. Coulomb provides a vehicle-charging infrastructure, which includes an open system driver network: the ChargePoint Network provides multiple web-based portals for Hosts, Fleet managers, Subscribers, and Utilities http://www.mychargepoint.net, and ChargePoint Networked Charging Stations ranging in capability from 120V 16A to 240V 80A AC charging to future 120kW DC charging, and all US charging stations are SAE J1772™ compliant. For more information, please visit http://www.coulombtech.com and follow Coulomb on Twitter at http://twitter.com/coulombevi.
Coulomb Technologies, Inc.
Anne Smith, 408-313-8089
anne@annesmithcommunications.com

