Posted on 12/01/2010 12:26:08 AM PST by Jet Jaguar
Travelers will soon be able to get more than country cooking and a fire-side game of checkers at Cracker Barrel. The Lebanon-based restaurant chain announced Tuesday plans to install electric vehicle charging stations at 24 locations in Tennessee.
Cracker Barrel will be part of a pilot project funded primarily by the Department of Energy. Company officials say the locations of their restaurants near interstates make them ideal for charging stations. CEO Michael Woodhouse points out that the original Cracker Barrel locations sold gasoline. Fueling pumps were removed during the early 70s because of the oil embargo.
Twelve of Cracker Barrel’s vehicle charging sites will be along the interstates connecting Nashville, Knoxville and Chattanooga. The rest will be located within those cities.
More.
Cracker Barrel to install ECOtality’s Blink EV chargers at select Dec 01, 2010 (Datamonitor via COMTEX) —
ECOtality, Inc., which is engaged in clean electric transportation and storage technologies, has announced that Cracker Barrel Old Country Store, Inc. has joined The EV Project, and will install ECOtality’s Blink electric vehicle, or EV, charging stations at restaurant and store locations. Cracker Barrel will install EV chargers at 24 locations within The EV Project’s pilot markets.
As part of the agreement, Cracker Barrel will install ECOtality’s Blink EV charging stations, including both Level 2 and DC Fast Charge commercial electric vehicle charging stations, at 24 restaurant and store locations within EV Project markets beginning April 2011.
Blink charging stations will be installed at 12 identified locations that support ECOtality’s previously announced EV blueprints in Tennessee and will connect the transportation corridors linking Nashville, Knoxville, and Chattanooga.
The 12 Cracker Barrel store locations in Tennessee include: Athens, Cleveland, Cookeville, Crossville, East Ridge, Farragut, Harriman, Kimball, Lebanon, Manchester, Murfreesboro, and Nashville. The remaining 12 unidentified Cracker Barrel locations will be installed within other Tennessee locations that are within the boundaries of The EV Project.
“We are pleased to announce Cracker Barrel as a commercial collaborator for ECOtality and The EV Project,” said Jonathan Read, CEO of ECOtality, Inc. “ECOtality’s goal for the Blink Network is to allow consumers to charge in locations that are attractive, convenient, and beneficial, making electric vehicles fit their lifestyle.”
For all the Greenies in TN? Cracker Barrel’s gone over the barrel here!
That charge you get while eating your meal is not going to take you down the road very far. How are they going to keep people that are not eating at the restaurant from using it? The first time somebody gets electrocuted or a car catches on fire, they’ll be gone.
According to another article recently posted here, an electric car has a range of 40 miles and requires 8 hours to charge up.
I doubt all that many interstate travelers are going to be using electric cars. Plus, if they spend an hour at the restaurant, they’re only going to get 5 miles’ worth of charge.
People driving gas powered vehicles will soon be treated the way cigarette smokers are now treated. Gas burning cars will become the cigarettes of tomorrow.
Kids in school will be taught to pester their parents to give up their gas burners to save the polar bears. Cities will declare city property and downtown areas off limits to gas burners. Only electric cars will be allowed in HOV lanes during rush hour.
Businesses will be required to equip a certain percentage of parking spaces with charging stations and gas powered vehicles will not be allowed to use them. The convenient parking spaces in cities and at businesses will be the ones equipped with charging stations. Gas guzzlers will have to compete for a few parking spots at the most distant locations while scores of empty spots with charging stations remain unused.
Gasoline will be treated like tobacco. It will cost more and become less available. The government will raise gasoline taxes over and over again to offset electro-car subsidies and they will be cheered on by smug lefties driving government subsidized Obama-Kars.
Each “coal powered car” hooked up to their charging stations will be the equivalent of running an electric clothes dryer. If they have all of their 24 charging stations being used, think of the cost they would run on their electric bill.
Hmmmm. It sounds like they are using places like Walgreens, etc to set up shop.
Wonder what the bribe is?
Or it blows up the building while they are eating.
Couldn’t have started at a more appropriately named chain. ;-)
Exactly right. They get 5 miles down the road to the next Cracker Barrel. By the way, will all of CB’s customers pay for this convenience? This could show how a few Green chicken littles will destroy a good business.
There is some encouraging information in their brochure:
Smart RFID technology allows for ease of payment. Can operate independent of a retailer point of sale (POS) system
So, there is at least the possibility that users might have to pay for their own electricity, instead of it being completely paid for by taxes and stuff....
More info: http://www.blinknetwork.com/commercial/dc-fast-charger.php
I wonder if the battery will accpet such a fast charge.
I know batteries heat up when you charge them with a 12 volt charger 480 volts would produce a lot of heat and it appears to me that such rapid charging would really put a hurt on battery life.
What wouldit cost to replace one of those big batteries. Maybe 5 or 6 thousand dollars?
I still want to know where the electric power is coming from if we can’t build new power plants?????
Why are the econazis so in love with electric cars?
Our power grid is always on the verge of being overloaded in severe weather. Add to that , the load from these wannabe electric cars, and you can either cool/heat your home or drive to and from work if you can afford to own a home within the 80 mile recharge radius.
Volt: $41,000 from Government Motors!...Never buy GM again!
” clean electric transportation and storage technologies”
The Progressives are ostriches with their heads in the ground. “Clean” transportation is as clean as the power plant that generated the electricity for it.
Now, about the Tooth Fairy - - - - -
To me, the funny part is that it is assumed that Cracker Barrel has or will have customers that drive electric cars.
The Cracker Barrel demographic seems exclusive of electric car drivers. Country ham and biscuits and gravy some how just doesn’t seem to include electric cars.
BTW, Cracker Barrel has a great audio book rental program. Rent a CD for about $3.50 and turn it in way down the road at a different CB. For the record, one audio CD is good for about 80 miles. A 6 cd book will take you about 500 miles.
Depends on the battery I guess, but I think most batteries will overheat if you try to charge them too fast. It might decrease their longevity too.
Also of interest is this article: Electric vehicle charging times will depend on both the charging station and the car.
Basically, it appears that the on-board charger limits the charging speed to protect the battery. The Leaf and the Volt are restricted to low-speed charging (3.3KW charger), which is about half of what a standard dryer outlet can provide. Future models, at least of the Leaf, are expected to have a 6.6KW charger. However, the Leaf does have the ability to accept DC voltage (like that available from the Blink stations), which skips the charger and goes straight to the battery.
So what we are saying is that a charging station at Cracker Barrel is eye candy for the envirowhacko’s, since you wouldn’t get a nickels worth of extra ride out of the electric car for the 60 minutes you are there.
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