Why and how to joyfully move our butts around town, without mucking the place up.

Tag Index

Pages with tag Electric Car charging

  • "DRIVETHEARC" EV fast charging corridor breaks ground in Northern California: From Monterey to Lake Tahoe, 50 New EV Fast Chargers to be Installed at over 20 Locations
  • ABB powers e-mobility with launch of first 150-350 kW high power charger: Competition is coming to high speed DC fast charging. Tesla's primary advantage is a ubiquitous DC fast charging network running at 120 kiloWatts or more, with credible plans to increase the power levels. The problem is that Tesla's network is proprietary and works only for Tesla's cars. The other manufacturers use standardized charging protocols (CHAdeMO and CCS) but have been limited in the maximum charging rate. With this new charger, standards-based charging networks can now begin to offer a charging rate high enough to compete against Tesla.
  • AeroVironment Unveils New TurboDX Next-Generation Global EV Charging Solution for Commercial, Workplace, Utility, Residential Customers
  • Audi renewable electricity, charging station installation, and charging location designs:

    With the newly unveiled Audi E-Tron, Audi is showing off several EV charging connections. In a deal with Arcadia Power, E-Tron buyers can make a deal to buy renewable energy via a Community Solar program. In a deal with Amazon, E-Tron buyers can have charging stations installed by Amazon Home Services. Finally, Audi showed a concept charging facility design in San Francisco.

  • BMW Group, Daimler, Ford and Volkswagen Group plan joint venture for ultra-fast charging along major highways in Europe: German car companies, plus Ford Motors, join together to promote a much higher charging rate for DC Fast Charging. So far the highest rate is Tesla's 120+ kiloWatt Supercharger. These companies propose a 350 kiloWatt rate for the Combo Charging System. Doing so would cut charging time to 10 minutes or so for a complete recharge, which would begin to support proper road trips.
  • CarCharging announces a new and integrated design for its CarCharging.com and BlinkNetwork.com websites :

    A few years ago the CarCharging Group bought out the Blink Network assets from ECOtality, which was rapidly going out of business. Until that time CarCharging's charging stations were on the ChargePoint network, which one would notice only if one paid attention to host site ownership details. By buying Blink, they got themselves an independent identity and a large charging network with its own identity.

    What they also bought was a piss-poor reputation grounded in the reality that their charging stations are often broken and not maintained properly. The name, Blink, lends itself to jokes about Blink Being On The Blink.

    While I'm sure updating the website is important for establishing corporate branding and whatnot, that shouldn't be their highest priority. Electric car owners unanimously want CarCharging to focus on reliability and good quality service.

  • Electrify America announces second $200 million zero emission vehicle investment plan for California:

    Volkswagen's investment into Electrify America is increasing.

  • Electrify America expanding EV charging network:

    The multiple EV charging networks with differing membership capabilities have been a big hindrance for public EV charging. EV owners have had to maintain memberships in multiple networks, and have faced the challenge of only charging at stations where they have a membership. This agreement enables "roaming" similar to how we are able to use any ATM machine -- meaning they're implementing a system of agreements with other EV charging operators to form a larger charging network.

  • Electrify America first California EV Fast Charging Station in Torrance; Nine stations in California by year end: Electrify America is coming to California, with one DC Fast Charging location in Southern California, and a string of locations by the end of 2018 primarily along the Hwy 99 corridor between Sacramento and Los Angeles. One location, Dunnigan, is a thankful addition to the stretch between Sacramento and the Oregon border. While the southern half of California -- south of the line connecting the SF Bay Area, Sacramento, and Reno -- have gotten lots of fast charging, the northern half has gotten very few, making trips north more difficult than it should be.
  • Electrify America to install Ohio Turnpike's first electric vehicle charging stations
  • Greenlots Secures Strategic Investment from Leading Utility Coalition :

    Greenlots is a leading company in the electric car charging space. One big claim they continually make is of being the "Open Charging Leader", meaning that their charging network is implemented using open protocols versus the closed proprietary protocols used by other network operators. While the end customer doesn't care about this issue, it is important to network operations. By using open protocols, in theory, Greenlots has a wider choice of charging station providers compared to the networks using closed protocols.

  • Lucid Motors providing customers with access to Electrify America ultra-fast-charging network:

    Lucid Motors, a new luxury electric car startup company, has announced an agreement with Electrify America regarding a nationwide fast charging plan. The Lucid Motors car can support ultra fast EV charging, and the company plans to go to production in 2020. It just so happens that Electrify America is building a nation-wide network of fast charging stations, with charging power up to 350 kiloWatts. The immediate goal is that by June 2019 the company will have over 2,000 DC fast charging locations across a large portion of the USA. Such a network is required in order to be competitive against Tesla Motors.

  • Nissan and EVgo open 'I-95 Fast Charging Arc' - EV driving between Boston and Washington DC:

    Nissan and EVgo have teamed up on another "Arc", meaning a series of EV Fast Charging stations connecting points A and B. In this case the route between Boston and Washington DC seems, going by the PlugShare map, to be already well-populated with fast charging services. More charging stations are certainly a good thing, however, and will encourage more of us to drive electric on longer trips. In this case it appears the maximum charging rate is 50 kW, which isn't sufficient for road trips, but the press release also says the facilities have been designed to support 150 kiloWatt fast charging in the future.

  • Target’s Charging Up Its Electric Vehicle Program to Reach More Than 20 States:

    Takata airbags can decompose and once in that state, if triggered the airbag will spew shrapnel on the passenger causing physical harm and possibly death. This is a big big safety deal, so why is Tesla refusing to replace these airbags for folks who've repaired and rebuilt a Tesla car? For that matter, why is Tesla going out of its way to throw roadblocks in the way of folks who've done so? Repairing and rebuilding cars is a widespread hobby/practice, and other car manufacturers support the rebuilders with parts and diagnostics tools. Not so with Tesla.

  • eMotorWerks and Share&Charge Deliver North America's First Peer to Peer Electric Vehicle Charging Network with Blockchain Payments :

    Encouraging person-to-person sharing of charging stations is one way to expand the electric car charging network. It's clear a key to a successful switch to electric cars is the speed with which the charging network becomes ubiquitous. This isn't the first effort at person-to-person charging station sharing. To my knowledge that honor falls on PlugShare/Recargo/Xatori (Xatori and Recargo merged). In any case, the interesting twist in this case is the use of Blockchain to record payments.

    Blockchain? That's the transaction recording technology underly Bitcoin and most other digital currencies. Blockchain is a simpler mechanism to record transactions than the prevailing system of monetary settlements through the ACH banking system. Blockchain-style transactions are as fast as an API call on an Internet service, and are touted as being highly secure due to well-thought-out algorithms and encryption mechanisms. Instead of Bitcoin, the team is instead using Ethereum.

    Almost two years ago I had a frenzy of excitement about Bitcoin, and posted (longtailpipe.com) some theorizing that using Bitcoin in charging stations would reduce the need for charging networks. Who knows if that would be the result.