Archive for Electric Car Charging Stations
More electric vehicle charging stations
The federal effort to get more charging stations for electric vehicles at workplaces is winning new members : Coca-Cola Co. and General Electric.
GE was among the first group of joining the Department of Energy’s Workplace Charging Challenge. The other original companies were Google, 3M, Siemens, Verizon, Duke Energy, Eli Lilly, Chrysler Group, Ford, GM, Nissan, San Diego Gas & Electric and Tesla.
In addition to Coca-Cola, the latest group to sign up includes Dell, Facebook, Hertz, AVL, Bentley Systems, Biogen Idec, Bloomberg, Hartford Financial Services Group, National Grid, NRG Energy, Osram Sylvania, Raytheon and Southern California Edison.
According to electricdrive.org, electric vehicle sales accounted for 3 percent of total vehicle sales last year, up from 2 percent in 2011.
The goal is to make workplace charging easily accessible so more people will consider buying electric vehicles, which cost less to power than gasoline vehicles. The Energy Department estimates driving on electricity is generally comparable to roughly $1 per gallon of gasoline equivalent.
The companies have committed to installing a charging infrastructure at a minimum of one major worksite location.
Six new electric car charging stations in university of michigan
In October 2012 six new electric car charging stations were installed in the campus parking areas of the University of Michigan.
We have had requests from faculty, staff, and students about the opportunity to have these on campus. The project was funded through a U.S. Department of Energy grant administered by the Clean Energy Coalition. Equipment and software costs were approximately $28,865.
The stations are quickly being utilized. Usage is recorded and the university is building future electric charging capacity into its plans. For instance, in the new Wall Street parking structure that we’ll be building, starting early next year, we’re putting in the infrastructure to be able to add up to 30 EV (electric vehicle) stations in that building, if there is that kind of demand…We’ll see how this works and what kind of usage we’re getting and then consider expanding.
says Stephen Dolen, U-M’s executive director of parking and transportation services.
Nissan Leaf electric car can go longer on single charge
The Leaf is the world’s most popular electric vehicle, comprising more than half of all electric car sales. Leaf global sales since late 2010 total 43,000 vehicles, about half of them in Japan.
The new model can travel 228 kilometers (142 miles) on a single charge, up from 200 kilometers (124 miles) as long as you don’t use air-conditioning, because of improvements such as streamlining the battery system and the vehicle’s lighter weight, according to Nissan.
The upgraded Nissan Leaf electric car can travel farther without recharging, comes in a cheaper model and tells drivers how much battery life is left.
The changes in the revamped model, shown Tuesday at a Tokyo hotel, were based on feedback from owners whose chief worry was running out of electric juice while driving, Nissan officials said.
Electric cars emit no pollution, but they need to be recharged. Owners have charging equipment installed at home. But the scarcity of recharging stations on the roads has limited electric vehicles’ use to short commutes and kept zero-emission cars confined to a market niche.
Among other changes to the Leaf:
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Electric Car Charging Stations
Cars that can be powered up at electric car charging stations have become quite a craze lately. Electric cars are relatively new vehicles that run on electric motors powered by electrical energy stored in batteries or similar devices. More and more companies have decided to start mass-producing these vehicles for numerous reasons, the most important of which is perhaps the astonishing oil prices, which are rising even higher as days go by. Another reason is, of course, the need to control CO2 emissions to protect the environment and ensure a better future for the generations to come.
Unlike hybrid cars, which are a mixture of a gas powered car and an electric power car, electric cars have no need to stop at a gas station – they, instead, stop at electric car charging stations. Such stations have been available for conscious drivers even since 2009. A driver can even simply install their own charging station, which is small enough to fit in the garage and allows for powering up the battery, which can be done overnight. The battery gets powered up by drawing electricity from the local grid.
However, for drivers who do not own a garage because they live in apartments, solutions exist. These are the charging networks. As the name suggests, charging networks entail networking together many charging stations. All of the charging stations that make up a network are small (not bigger than the size of a gas pump). But the fun only begins. These stations can communicate with each other and the driver can communicate with them using the internet. This helps the drivers a lot, easing their task to find a place to power up their car and keeping them from remaining with a wasted battery in the middle of their trip. This solves another problem – drivers can take longer trips with their electric vehicles because of these specially designed electric car charging stations.
Not only can the drivers locate charging stations along their scheduled route, but they can also reserve them for their use using the internet. Moreover, when the infrastructure will be in place, such stations will be available everywhere, from private neighborhoods to the side of the roads, just where the driver needs them.
San Diego Zoo opened five new electric car-charging stations
The solar power will be stored in two large batteries located in a small building on the edge of the parking lot. When the batteries are full, the excess power goes to charge cars or feed the electrical grid. 
“So we can take power from the solar canopy and take it into the grid,” said Jim Avery of SDG&E. “We can put it into cars. We can put it into energy storage. And at the same time we can take the energy storage back to support the grid.”
Storage of solar energy is a huge issue because the sun doesn’t always shine. The 100-kilowatt storage system at the zoo means when the sun goes down, its power can still be used to charge cars or power someone’s house by feeding the grid, the batteries are state of the art, and they use advanced lithium polymer technology.
The university San Diego plans to build a small solar energy plant like this.
NFC Technology for electric car charging stations
As reported by NFCWorld.com, the increasing number of electric cars has produced a unique opportunity for NFC-enabled payments. OnStar sees the need to charge away from home will only increase, as will the need to know the cost of charging.
This is where OnStar’s Park-Tap-Charge smartphone app comes into play. The app is designed for use at charging stations where usage fees are applied as well as to inform drivers in advance how much a charging session will cost. 
By tapping their smart phone to a charging station, electric car drivers will be able to see payment options and initiate the flow of electricity.
The current prototype iteration of the app features an NFC tag embedded in the charge station, which the driver taps with a smartphone to initiate payment from a chosen, connected account. Prior to accepting the transaction, the app will show the driver the hourly rate of charging, the estimated time for a full charge and the estimated cost of a full charge.
In addition to the Park-Tap-Charge app, OnStar has also launched a separate app that determines if a driver’s destination is beyond reach of a single battery charge. In such cases, the app plots a route that takes the driver past charging stations at appropriate intervals.
Near field communication (NFC) is a set of standards for smartphones and similar devices to establish radio communication with each other by touching them together or bringing them into close proximity, usually no more than a few centimetres.
NFC devices can be used in contactless payment systems, similar to those currently used in credit cards and electronic ticket smartcards, and allow mobile payment to replace or supplement these systems. For example, Google Wallet allows consumers to store credit card and store loyalty card information in a virtual wallet and then use an NFC-enabled device at terminals that also accept MasterCard PayPass transactions.
electric car charging stations in Long beach
The Long Beach city plans to install electric vehicle charging stations at city-owned parking lots and facilities all across the city: Long Beach Convention Center, Aquarium of the Pacific, Long Beach Airport, Queen Mary, City Place Parking Structure and near the intersection of Long Beach Boulevard and Market Street. 
We think that Long Beach is a good opportunity because it is a location a lot of people use.There is a lot of traffic that comes through and many destination spots within the city. There is a growing population of electric vehicles, so by putting these charging stations up, we expect them to get used.
said Scott LaBass, Los Angeles sale manager for ECOtality.
There will be between two and six chargers at each station. Most will be the Level 2 (240-volt) chargers, which are industry standard at this time, and can fully charge most vehicles in 4 to 8 hours. A few will be installed as DC Fast Chargers, which can give a 30-mile range in about 15 minutes.
Chargers will cost between $1 and $2 per hour. Most users will want to sign up for a membership (which currently is free, but may eventually cost about $30 a year), and there also is a smartphone application that locates charging stations nearest to you see here with those features : Read More
The city of Ottawa is setting up new electric car charging stations
“As part of our Term of Council Priorities, we want to do everything we can to encourage our residents to make greener transportation choices” said Mayor Watson. “By using this charging unit, today’s electric car owners will help pave the way for those who make this green choice in future.”
The lack of charging stations isn’t a big downside because most owners charge at home, but the new electric car charging stations in Ottawa will be a plus.
The City is providing an accessible downtown parking space to host the charging station, and Hydro Ottawa is covering the cost of the electricity. Hydro Ottawa estimates that if the charging station is used around the clock, seven days a week, the hydro cost would be less than $600 per year. The $25,000 installation cost for the EV charging station is being split between the City and Hydro Ottawa.
