wheego | electric cars | EV » Coulomb Technologies

Slow Start, Gathering Tide: EV Predictions for 2011

susan — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 13:01:22 +0000

by Jim Motavalli for bNet, July 9, 2010

Why should predictions be restricted to the end of the year? I make them all the time, and this is such an interesting crossroads for the auto industry that I’d like to offer some now for 2011, right here in the dog days of summer:

A Slow Start. Although Ford, Chevrolet, Tesla, Fisker, Coda, Nissan, Wheego, Think and many more are preparing new battery and plug-in hybrid cars for late this year and early next, a manufacturer that sells 10,000 of any of these cars should count itself lucky. EVs are a really new concept for people, and there will be a lot more tire-kicking than contract-signing.
Zip Code Rules. As I reported earlier this week, sales will be concentrated in California. But it’s more than that – early EVs for 2011 will be expensive, so they’ll be heavily represented in certain affluent zip codes on both coasts. Praveen Mandal, president of charging company Coulomb, calls this “clustering.” That is one of many challenges that utilities have to face as they try to figure out how to build out the grid to accommodate EVs. Scott Simons of the Detroit-area DTE Energy told me that his company is working with automakers to try and identify those neighborhoods and beef up infrastructure there with bigger substations and more.
Winners and Losers. The entry market strongly favors established players, and they’ll be the ones that will see the most action in 2011. Nissan, for example, has huge built-in advantages in promoting its Leaf battery car. These include a name recognition, a national dealer network and money to pay for TV advertising. Chevrolet has the same for the Volt “range extender,” and Ford for its electric version of the Focus. Newcomers like Think, Coda and Wheego will have credible cars, but they’ll really have to be clever about the guerrilla marketing and publicity to get their voices heard.
Subsidies Matter. Many states are now offering tax incentives for EVs, but California rules with a $5,000 cash rebate (that could run out quickly). By offsetting steep purchase prices, these credits will really make a difference. A Nissan Leaf for $20,000 instead of $32,000? Yes, but only in California. EV sales could take off past 10,000 per carmaker if the feds pass pending legislation called the Electric Vehicle Deployment Act of 2010, which has bipartisan support. In the wake of President Obama’s appearance at the Smith Electric Vehicle plant in Missouri this week, the Electrification Coalition’s Robbie Diamond pointed out that Obama has said he would sign it, but “now is the time to move that legislation forward.” The bill would give EV buyers in select “deployment communities” incentives worth up to $10,000.
“Range Anxiety” Will Fade. The fear that EVs will run out of juice halfway home will keep a lot of people from buying them in the first half of 2011, but such nail biting will evaporate in the third and fourth quarters. Few people really need more than 100 miles of range –- they just think they do. Good word of mouth from EV early adopters should clear that up.
Cities Will Lag in Setting up Charging Networks. I went searching for a Manhattan-based EV plug-in, but found only one. The bigger the city, the longer this will take, especially in the early days of 2011. Although EVs are really more city than suburban cars, charging them will be a headache in New York, Chicago and other cities where space is at a premium and most people live in apartments. Los Angeles? The city is already set up for cars, and so gung-ho about EVs they’ll find a way to get ‘em plugged in.

Jim Motavalli is the author of Forward Drive: The Race to Build Clean Cars for the Future, among other books. He has been covering the environmental side of the auto industry for more than a decade, and writes regularly on those topics for the New York Times.

City of Martinez Becomes 5th Bay Area City to Install Coulomb Technologies Electric Vehicle Charging Stations

susan — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 17:01:52 +0000

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.

Pleasant Hill Becomes 4th Bay Area City to Install Coulomb Charging Stations for Electric Vehicles

susan — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 21:08:32 +0000

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.

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.

Contacts:

Coulomb Technologies, Inc.
Anne Smith, 408-313-8089
anne@annesmithcommunications.com