Coulomb car-charging stations coming to Calif.
Coulomb Technologies is developing networked equipment for charging electric vehicles at the curb.
(Credit: Kim Smith/General Motors)Coulomb Technologies has inked deals with service stations throughout California to provide smart equipment for charging electric vehicles in the first quarter of 2009.
Solar panels will power some of Coulomb's networked equipment, which can provide electric cars about a 10-mile driving range after an hour of charging.
The dozens of planned locations include gas stations along Interstates 101, 5, and 99, which snake north to south through much of California's length. A few of the stations will be closer to cities, and some already offer a mix of cleaner fuels, such as hydrogen, biodiesel, and ethanol.
"It's very similar to a gas pump business, where we provide the equipment that allows station to run a business," said Coulomb CEO Richard Lowenthal.
Coulomb sells its technology to service stations, which set the consumer pricing. Although some may offer car charging as a free perk, Lowenthal said he thinks the price per charge should be about half of the equivalent in gasoline.
The Campbell, Calif., company aims to establish hundreds of charging stations by the end of 2009.
It has been readying its technology for a December launch of public stations in San Jose. In tests around Silicon Valley, the company has been working to prevent interference to its wireless communications from sources including UPS delivery trucks pulling up near the car-charging stations, Lowenthal said.
Although financing has dried up with the economic downturn, interest from potential customers is strong thanks to the anticipated releases of the GM Chevy Volt and a plug-in Toyota Prius in the next two years, he added.
Coulomb faces plenty of competition from Better Place and other start-ups building the infrastructure to charge electric cars. Nissan announced a joint effort Thursday to test charging systems with the state of Oregon. Lowenthal said he envisions multiple companies succeeding in the coming years.
"We assume it will be something like cell phones where there are multiple providers and roaming agreements," he said.
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Also, if an electric car that has run down the battery is depended on 1 hour charge to go the next 10 miles, then it really is not going to be an effective solution. Need the ability to swap out a battery so that, just like filling the tank, the amount of time for maintenance is minimized. If electric was the only thing we knew, we would live with it. But knowing the convenience of gas (and hybrid) vehicles, designers of all-electric better figure out how to compete or they will be resigned to neighborhood commute vehicles. (though that alone isn't a small market in iteself, once we get used to that concept.)
A) Charge their car every 40 miles? (this is what the GM car will require in 2010)
B) Sit for an hour at a gas station to charge the car only enough to go 10 miles?
C) Pay half the cost of what a full tank of gas would cost for a 10 mile charge that wastes an hour of your life?
The above would seem to indicate that. So lets see it would basically take four hours to fully charge the thing, even if the haf the cost of a full tank was for a full 40 mile charge that is still outrageous. No wonder car companies are going belly up.
What we need are cars that can go 100 miles on some sort of fuel that costs pennies to go that 100 miles. Anything else is just another screwing for the consumer. Yah, the environment is important but not at the cost of an expensive new car that has you getting the shaft everytime you need to recharge.
Robert
If you don't know what you're talking about, please be silent. The GM car does NOT require charging every 40 miles. In fact, it NEVER requires external charging.
The battery system CAN run the car for up to 40 miles. It has a gasoline engine that would add juice to the battery system when it gets low. In some ways this is similar to a train where the diesel engine produces electricity that drives the train - the diesel engine NEVER powers the train itself.
Learn before spewing.
If you are correct then it still proves that the US car companies haven't learned a thing since gas electric hybrids is not the solution and never will be. Full on electric cards that get 200 miles to a charge and that can be charged fully in less then half an hour is. If none of the US car makers have one on the slate for release by 2012 then my comments still stand and they deserve to go belly up.
What should be done then is once they go belly up the US government takes them over and leases them to companies that do have full electric cards. Companies like Tesla and the company making the new eMini Cooper. It is quite clear that the US car makers haven't a clue, are unable to muster the brains to see what is needed and do it. They want to keep selling large gas sucking piles of crap. That has to end.
Robert