Being Smart About Your Electric Vehicle Infrastructure
Editor’s Note: This is a guest contribution by Richard Lowenthal, CEO of electric vehicle ChargePoint manufacturer Coulomb Technologies (ChargePoints pictured above in front of SF City Hall). This post is a followup to last week’s (and ongoing) discussion on EV Charging Infrastructure by Mayors Gavin Newsom and Sam Adams. UPDATE: Listen to Shai Agassi of competitor Better Place on Mayor Newsom’s radio show.
With all of the recent talk about who will become the EV capitol of the US, we would like to point out the obvious: without the necessary charging infrastructure, the cars won’t run.
- » See also: Is the Renault-Nissan Alliance Going in Two Different Electric Car Directions?
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But what about these charging stations? Won’t any old plug do? The answer is a resounding no. When the EV business becomes big—whether you are in San Francisco or Portland—you are going to need smart features that you can only get with networked charging stations. Those features include:
1. A billing system. This allows stations to be placed curbside, in apartment lots, in condominium lots, in workplace lots and in other places where you park your car for hours. Consider this: When your local ballpark determines it needs 200 spaces capable of charging Tesla Roadsters at full rate, they’re going to need 4 Megawatts of electricity. That will cost the ballpark $400 an hour. They’re not going to give it away.
2. Smart Grid integration. Our electric grid needs to move forward. Forward means the integration of networking into the grid. That allows the utility to charge vehicles when it has an abundance of energy, and especially clean energy. It also allows you to know how much energy you’re using for your car and when, and how much it costs you.
3. High availability. This means that the network, and therefore the utility, station owners, and drivers can find stations that are working and available before they drive there for a charge. And when a station is broken it will be fixed by the network, or service will be dispatched as soon as the problem occurs.
4. User friendly features. These include the ability to find any station worldwide and find out if which ones are available for a charge. Also, notification when your car is fully charged, when it’s overdue for a charge, and when someone unplugs your car and stops it from charging. You will also appreciate reporting features, like knowing how much greenhouse gas you’re saving.
5. Time-of-use rate charging. This allows you to charge your car automatically when it is most economical.
The bottom line for the successful deployment of EV will require smart charging stations, and in order to provide a financial base and a robust feature set, those stations must be based on a networked infrastructure.
Coulomb Technologies was founded in 2007 with the express mission to ensure that anyone who is considering the choice to buy an electric vehicle will have adequate access to fuel for the cars. Visit www.coulombtech.com to learn more about Coulomb’s infrastructure plans and where you can find a local charging station. Keep up with the latest news: Coulomb Technologies on Twitter.
Just make the darn batteries removable and market the charged batteries at convinence stores.
No need to design a plug, just standardize the battery hook ups.
See also:
Car Companies Standardize Plug for Electric Vehicles
http://gas2.org/2009/04/19/car-companies-agree-on-plug-standard-for-electric-vehicles/
Removable batteries will never work. If I just dropped $5K on a new battery pack, there’s no way in hell I’m going to “exchange” it for someone else’s worn-out pack. There’s also no way to know how much capacity someone else’s “used” pack will have, so a full charge on a bad pack may only yield half the miles of a good pack.
What if I drive 200 miles somewhere on a good pack, then exchange and get a bad pack and I’m left stranded 100 miles from another pack?
While exchangeable packs sound good in theory, they’ll never work in practice. They’re too big, too heavy, and will never be standard across vehicles. We’re not changing a small cell-phone battery here folks, we’re talking about 500-1000 pound batteries!
This is really easy, humans can fix these things. Just invest a trillion and the pollution and health problem of transportation will be solved, worldwide.
NONE of this is NEEDED to get things going. None of it.
A proper EV has enough range for the average users ENTIRE DAY’S worth of driving and then just plug in at home.
JUST GET the damned cards on the road (the E95 NIMH powered cars IE ones we can afford) Just get them on the road. the INFRASTRUCTURE will take care of itself once they hit critical mass.
I can forsee employers installing outlets for there employee’s gratis. My employer has already stated without hesitation if anyone manages to get a plug in withing 30 days he will have 220v outlets for charging. His cost will be less than $200 for the installation of the outlets and literally a few DOLLARS a month on the electric bill.
He would save more money changing ONE 75watt incan to a 13watt CFL in one month than the cost of ALL our employee’s having electric cars and plugging in faily at work. Its diddly dollars wise.
My yearly “fuel” bill for my car will go from $3500 a year to $300 a year.
rent batteries for a monthly fee, and have stations that switch out batteries when you’re running low and also be able to charge at home. Most people wouldn’t need to go to battery stations unless they were going on a long trip.
Don’t electric cars actually hurt the environment? Considering electricity in the US is produced mostly out of coal, and 50% of the electricity is lost in transport. Also, lugging around that massive battery will make the car less energy efficient. Hybrids seem like the greenest option for the foreseeable future.
Air Car, coming end of year. I know it’s ugly but give it some time.
http://www.ipboast.com/pg/kaltura_video/show/679/
Compressed air does not have all the problems of electric and hydrogen systems, which is the reason some countries are already fitting refueling stations with compressed air systems.
What has not been addressed, and will be funny to watch, is when there is a power blackout, and having dozens of cars with no power stranded at each refueling station until power is restored.
You do not lose 50% of your electricity is power transmission, try more like 2% loss. Just buy an electric car for your commute and charge the thing at home. If you want to go out of town rent a hybrid.