Vancouver unveils public electric vehicle charging station

Russian president orders sped-up retirement of Soviet-era airliners after crash that killed 45

MOSCOW - Russia's President Dmitry Medvedev says he wants Soviet-built airliners similar to the one that crashed?…

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Bozzuto Unveils Maryland's First Public Electric Vehicle Charging Stations in a Residential Community

Press Release Source: The Bozzuto Group On Wednesday March 30, 2011, 9:00 am EDT

GREENBELT, Md., March 30, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- The Bozzuto Group plans to unveil and demonstrate the operation of the State's first public electric vehicle charging stations contained within a residential development at The Fitzgerald, an apartment community located in Baltimore's Mount Vernon district.? A "plug-in" ceremony involving participation from local business leaders and officials is scheduled for Thursday, March 31st at 10:30am EDT.

(Photo http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20110330/PH73776 )

Bozzuto selected and is working with SemaConnect, a leading developer of wireless networked electric vehicle charging stations, to install two ChargePro charging stations within The Fitzgerald's 1,245-space public parking garage.? The garage has the capability to support two additional stations as demand increases and as area residents acquire electric cars.?

"As a developer, builder, owner and manager, we recognize that we have the opportunity to be a leader in the sustainable use of the Earth's resources," said Toby Bozzuto, president, Bozzuto Development Company.? "We also realize that, over the long term, we can actually create more value with less environmental impact. We look forward to helping recharge current – and future – electric vehicle owners at The Fitzgerald."

The ChargePro charging stations are available to the general public to recharge any new mass-marketed electric vehicle, including the Nissan Leaf, Chevy Volt and plug-in Toyota Prius, and include smart card authentication, energy metering, automatic payment system and web-based network management.

"By installing our charging stations at The Fitzgerald, we provide residents and visitors the ability to safely and easily recharge their electric vehicles in a state of the art facility," said Mahi Reddy, president and CEO, SemaConnect. "We look forward to working with Bozzuto to deploy charging infrastructure at additional multifamily properties, helping our country make the transition to a fossil-fuel free transportation future."

Professionally managed by Parking Management, Inc. (PMI) and with 950 spaces available for use by the University of Baltimore (UB), The Fitzgerald garage provides 60 percent of the school's student parking accommodations and is equipped with free door-to-door UB shuttle service, a staffed office and automatic university debit capabilities.

"The University of Baltimore and Bozzuto have been great partners in building this transit-oriented development, and now with preferred hybrid parking, UB Zimride ridesharing, Zipcars, and Bozzuto's foray into electric vehicle charging stations, there are even more ways to get around with less impact on the earth," said Steve Cassard, vice president for facilities management and capital planning, University of Baltimore.

"As the first residential community in the Mid-Atlantic to install public electric vehicle charging stations, Bozzuto's Fitzgerald development exemplifies the use of SemaConnect's smart grid compatible and multi-tenant capabilities and stands to greatly benefit the ever-increasing number of Marylanders who will own an electric vehicle," said Jill Sorensen, executive director of The Baltimore Electric Vehicle Initiative. "This important addition to our EV infrastructure – public stations within an apartment community – will make owning an electric vehicle a real possibility for anyone choosing to rent a home rather than own."

The Fitzgerald is a mixed-use development comprised of 275 luxury apartments, 24,000 square feet of street-level retail and a 1,245 space public parking garage.? The community is registered with the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) and is on track to become largest LEED-certified apartment community in the Baltimore area.

The Fitzgerald is a joint venture between The Bozzuto Group, Gould Property Company, NYSTRS and former Baltimore Raven Michael McCrary, and sits on 4.6 acres of land owned by the University of Baltimore.? The community was developed by Bozzuto Development Company, built by Bozzuto Construction Company, and is now managed by Bozzuto Management Company.

For more information, visit www.FitzgeraldBaltimore.com or call 888-345-9142.

About The Bozzuto Group

Headquartered in the Washington, D.C. area, The Bozzuto Group is a diversified residential real estate company consisting of six integrated companies – Acquisitions, Construction, Development, Homebuilding, Land Development and Property Management – that together provide a broad range of real estate services throughout the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast.? The company is committed to providing quality housing for individuals of all income levels, producing everything from luxury homes and apartments to affordable housing solutions.

Throughout The Bozzuto Group's more than 23-year history, the company has developed, acquired and built more than 31,000 homes and apartments, and the firm and its principals have been honored with numerous industry awards and accolades, including having been recognized by the NAHB as the nation's premier apartment development company, and twice as management company of the year.? For more information, please visit http://www.bozzuto.com.

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Wellington unveils new EV charger as New Zealand looks to a bright electric future

New Zealand's capital city Wellington unveiled its first public electric vehicle charger this month, as it aims to kickstart its fledgling electric transportation market.

The city, already the first in New Zealand to trial production electric cars in the form of the Mitsubishi i-MiEV, now has a 15-amp charging post available to anybody on the cortner of Customhouse Quay and Whitmore Street.

The charger, which is free to use to the public, is a signal of the growing appeal of electric vehicles, which are most associated with places such as Tokyo and California but are now becoming available around the world.

Although there are reportedly only a "handful" of electric vehicles on the streets of Wellington, the Mitsubishi i and Nissan LEAF are both set to hit New Zealand in 2012, where they are expected to draw the same attention they have done in Japan, the US and Europe.

Mitsubishi is already known as something of a green name in the country -- it's a long-term partner of the Zealandia eco-tourism attraction, a 225-hectare living ark which opened last year to showcase the world as it was "the day before humans arrived."

Last year, it provided five i-MiEV models to the city for a trial involving authorities and the New Zealand Post, similar to the larger trials being conducted across neighboring Australia.

Unlike other electric vehicle markets, which often use fossil fuels to generate the electricity used for charging cars, New Zealand boasts an excellent alternative energy infrastructure of wind turbines and hydroelectricity installations.

In 2009, researchers said the the unique capability of electric vehicles to store and discharge power while they are plugged in and not used, effectively making them large batteries, could greatly increase the efficiency of the New Zealand power grid in the future by storing unused energy and providing it back when it was most needed.

For a country which produces roughly 70 percent of its electricity renewably, Wellington's single new charge point could be the start of something very big in indeed.

Read more: http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/4786249/Mayor-amped-about-charging-post

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Western Michigan University Unveils EV Charging Stations

March 22, 2011

KALAMAZOO, MI - Western Michigan University opened four electric vehicle charging stations to the public during a brief ceremony March 21 on the Parkview Campus in Kalamazoo.

U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow drove up to the ceremony with WMU President John M. Dunn in the first Chevrolet Volt bought in southwest Michigan. Before addressing the crowd, the two received a quick tutorial on how easy it is to use the new charging stations.

Earlier this year, Stabenow introduced legislation called the Charging America Forward Act. The legislation provides consumers with a rebate up to $7,500 at the point of purchase to help spur the sale of plug-in electric vehicles. Her bill also extends and expands a current tax credit for investments in plug-in electric vehicle charging stations.

"Having the capacity to do the battery innovation and manufacturing and then to build these wonderful automobiles and add the infrastructure is all part of a strategy," Stabenow said during the WMU ceremony. "...This is a strategy for us that is about jobs in Michigan. It's about innovation. It's about getting us off of foreign oil and having a strategy for controlling our own destiny in terms of energy. And we're on a campus of people that are very smart who are contributing to this both in the innovation and the vision for the future."

Anyone with a special card may use the chargers for free, since much of the expected electricity use will be offset by WMU's existing renewable energy resources -- a wind turbine on the Parkview Campus and a solar array atop Wood Hall on the main campus. If usage is more than expected, university officials will re-evaluate keeping the service free.

Dunn said the charging stations support WMU's sustainability goals as well as the Southwest Michigan Regional Sustainability Covenant. He also noted that the stations' installation is consistent with ongoing research at the university.

"I could not think of a better place or better company in which to celebrate these wonderful new resources. Our College of Engineering and Applied Science is a center for research that focuses on the battery technology that makes the electric vehicle possible," Dunn said. "Our Center for Hybrid Electric Applied Research -- the CHEAR Lab -- is a partnership between WMU and Eaton Corp. The $1?million lab was opened last fall, and we expect hybrid-electric vehicle drive and battery technology to take a significant leap forward as a result of the work being done here."

WMU had several vehicles on hand at the unveiling event. The Volt was borrowed from Todd Bannon of Kalamazoo, who pre-ordered the car last October and picked it up March?19 from fellow alumnus Jason Sellers, a salesman at DeNooyer Chevrolet in Kalamazoo. Also on display were plug-in vehicles owned by Professor John Patten and by WMU. The university's growing fleet of energy-efficient vehicles includes two that are all-electric and about 50 that are flex-fuel capable. They are used by the public safety, maintenance and custodial units.

WMU is the first Michigan university to place a public charging station on its main campus. The EV charging stations at WMU can each support two vehicles. While one car charges at the traditional 120-volt rate, the other can plug in for a 240-volt quick charge.

WMU received its four EV charging stations at no cost from their manufacturer, Coulomb Technologies, through an equipment grant from the company's ChargePoint America program. The program is part of a federal government demonstration project to encourage adoption of plug-in hybrids and electric vehicles.

ChargePoint America is helping to build needed infrastructure for the cars by providing about 5,000 networked stations free of charge to organizational and residential applicants in 10?U.S. regions, including Michigan's Lower Peninsula. All of the stations are expected to be installed by this coming October. During the following two years, the program will collect anonymous, real-world data regarding the stations' usage and potential impact on the nation's electrical grid.

The $37?million ChargePoint America program was made possible by a $15?million grant funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act through a U.S. Department of Energy initiative. The program also involves a partnership with three automakers -- Ford, General Motors and smart USA, part of Daimler AG Co. The companies have committed to delivering electric vehicles to ChargePoint America's 10 designated U.S. regions.

WMU's four charging stations have been positioned next to public transportation bus stops. They went online March?17. Because they are part of the ChargePoint America network, they cannot be used without a ChargePass card or credit card.

To obtain a ChargePass card, those interested must go to the ChargePoint America Web site at chargepointamerica.com and create an account. Users can opt to receive an e-mail or text message telling them when their cars are fully charged. In addition, anyone can use the Web site to find out which ChargePoint America stations across the country are unoccupied and navigate to them.

At slightly more than 50, Michigan now has more public charging stations than any state in the Midwest. In addition to WMU's four Kalamazoo stations, the state's west side has five stations in Traverse City, two in Holland, and one each in Grand Rapids and Muskegon.

The state's only other public stations are located at Schoolcraft College, a two-year institution in Livonia, and the Michigan Alternative and Renewable Energy Center in Muskegon, which is operated by Grand Valley State University.?

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Ford Unveils a Slick Electric Microcar … in 1967

 

Updated: 7 p.m. We found some video of the Comuta in action! Hat tip to David A.

Forget the Focus EV. It promises to be a fine vehicle, but it’s old hat. Ford’s first attempt at a modern electric vehicle made its debut more than 40 years ago at the 1967 Geneva Motor Show, and it foreshadowed the next four decades of EV development.

The Comuta was Ford’s first stab at battery-powered propulsion since Henry Ford and Thomas Edison worked on an EV in 1913. It could (reasonably) comfortably seat two adults and two children, and it had a top speed of 40 mph and a range of 40 miles if driven at 25 mph– not bad for 43 years ago, and in the ballpark of modern neighborhood electric vehicles.

When the folks at Gizmag dug up an archival photo of the Comuta, we were as amused as the lady in the picture and had to find out more about the tiny Ford EV that never was. Ford’s archivists were kind enough to provide photos and press releases about the vehicle’s original debut.

It turns out it was a concept developed by Ford of Britain. Heritage Fleet Director (we love that title) John Nevill tells us the concept’s rear wheels were driven by dual DC electric motors that put out 3.7 kilowatts (5 horsepower) and were originally designed as aircraft auxiliary units. Power came from four mid-mounted 12-volt lead-acid batteries.

At 6 feet, 8 inches long, the Comuta was less than half the length of a contemporary Cortina or Mustang. It was so small you could fit three of them in a single parking space. It had a “sophisticated” heating and cooling system, and a battery-charge meter was optional.?Ford advertised the vehicle as a city car with a turning radius of 18 feet and “automatic driving” without a transmission.

At the vehicle’s unveiling, Ford of Britain’s assistant managing director Leonard Crossland — later Ford chairman?Sir Leonard Crossland — said similar cars would hit the road by the mid-1970s, and he said it before any hint of the oil crisis we experienced during that era. “We expect electric cars to be commercially feasible within the next 10 years, although we believe their uses will be primarily as city-center delivery vans and suburban shopping cars.”

“The internal combustion engine will continue to be the most practical form of power for long-distance and motorway driving, but we are sure that electric cars will have a part to play in meeting some future transportation needs,” Crossland continued. The “practical, little experimental car” needed better batteries, he said. “And, as you know, a great deal of effort is being put into more-advanced battery technology.”

The more things change …

According to Nevill, Ford built two Comutas. One still exists at the Science Museum in London, alongside other feats of British engineering including Sinclair computers, Avro aircraft and early steam engines.

Even though the styling screams, “Honey, I shrunk the Econoline!” down to the 10-inch “dog dish” wheels, we imagine its retro lines might make a cute Cube competitor on the Fiesta platform.

Photos: Ford. Video: Odziz / YouTube.

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