Who Are The EV Charging Station Players?

Reuters ^ | Nov 26, 2010 | Pete Danko

[Jet Jaguar]

ECOtality and Coulomb are the leaders in the emerging EV-charging market. They convinced the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) they were well-equipped to put a charging infrastructure in place quickly and gather important driving and charging data for the department about early EV users. In turn, the feds showered ECOtality with a $115 million grant to install, at no cost, around 15,000 charging stations in homes and public locations through the EV Project; Coulomb, meanwhile, got $37 million for a 4,600-charger program called ChargePoint America.

These aren't the only two companies making chargers. Nissan has partnered with AeroVironment to equip new Leaf buyers for $2,200, and GM hooked up with SPX Service Solutions, who will sell and install their charger for around the same price. And there are others. But why buy what you can get for free? If you have a garage or carport, with the EV Project and ChargePoint, free charging stations "should last through 2011, so it'll be a good year to buy a vehicle," Lowenthal said.

[al baby]

Bingo

[sionnsar]

Something’s likely to get pretty hot doing that...

[USFRIENDINVICTORIA]

The document you linked to didn’t open. Could you post a working link, please?

BTW, I find that the price system provides an excellent first-approximation of the resources used in anything. (Provided we’re talking free market — subsidies, excise taxes, etc. distort things.) IOW, the metric I’m most interested in is $/mile. If electric energy, where the rubber meets the road, cost less than gasoline — then, electric vehicles deserve a closer look. I don’t need to concern myself with transmission losses, etc. — just the cost to me. The next (and huge) consideration is whether the savings on electricity vs. gasoline will pay for the batteries, and other incremental costs of an electric vehicle. Finally, the range, time to charge, etc. need to be factored in. For some users, these will be deal breakers; for others, they won’t be much of an issue.

[Attention Surplus Disorder]

“Some 70% of electrical energy is lost in transmission, according to the DOE”

I’d like to see a source on that. My impression was that grid losses were in the area of 7%.

[Attention Surplus Disorder]

“Some 70% of electrical energy is lost in transmission, according to the DOE”

I’d like to see a source on that. My impression was that grid losses were in the area of 7%.

[NonValueAdded]

If you have a garage or carport, with the EV Project and ChargePoint, free charging stations "should last through 2011, so it'll be a good year to buy a vehicle," Lowenthal said.

And 2012 when they won't be free? not so much.

[mowowie]

Yea, walgreens., Walmart etc..
“Just hang out in our store for a while to get that 4 hour charge to get you back home”

OK....

[mowowie]

I have a transformer around the corner that regularly blows up around ever 9 months or so.

Can't wait for these glorified golf carts to start showing up.

[sionnsar]

The DOE/EIA links are squirrely: Try this one (Annual Energy Review 2009) and if it works look at page *numbered* 225 (at the bottom, PDF page 263 of 446):

http://www.eia.doe.gov/aer/pdf/aer.pdf

Conversion losses: 24.61 quads
Gross generation: 14.29 quads
T&D losses: 1.00 quads

[sionnsar]

“Some 70% of electrical energy is lost in transmission, according to the DOE”
I’d like to see a source on that. My impression was that grid losses were in the area of 7%.

You are correct. Further down the thread I found my remembered number included conversion losses. Read on, my friend.

[mowowie]

“How is this “green” in the eyes of the ecomentalists?”

It’s SOMETHING, OK?
Isn’t that all that matters?
/s

[Army Air Corps]

I forgot, it is the intent that matters, not the consequences. ;-)

[raybbr]

Without some system to manage charging times, there will be fun times when enough houses on a pole transformer start charging simultaneously and blow out the transformer.

How would it be any different if everybody on the block started their dryer at the same time? Also, the x-former "on the pole" only feeds on residence. If you are talking about a substation that's different but still it's no different than the dryer hypothetical.

[businessprofessor]

The situation is different. Dryers operate for shorter periods at various times of day. There is no reason to run dryers for long periods during the same window of non peak hours. Because of the charging time required, EV owners will charge during the same window of non peak hours.

[Rebelbase]

“ECOtality and Coulomb are the leaders in the emerging EV-charging market”

Any connection with GE? GE is committed to buying 25,000 Chevy Volts and has been spamming Television with ads for their future charging stations.

[Jet Jaguar]

I dunno.

GE and Obama are connected at the hip.

[B Knotts]

We need to end all subsidies for this crap.

[raybbr]

The situation is different. Dryers operate for shorter periods at various times of day. There is no reason to run dryers for long periods during the same window of non peak hours. Because of the charging time required, EV owners will charge during the same window of non peak hours.

Still doesn't' add up to any problems. It's only 30 Amps or less. On a house that has a 200A service it's nothing.

[RayChuang88]

Actually, the CHAdeMO standard is that 30-minute charging standard, which uses DC charging instead of AC charging for faster charging. The Nissan Leaf is equipped with a CHAdeMO plug, so it's ready to do 30-minute charges when commercial charging stations that use the CHAdeMO standard become widely available.

[redhead]

Where’s George Soros?