Ford, SunPower want you to charge that electric vehicle with solar

Summary: The ‘Drive Green for Life’ program makes it simpler for Ford electric vehicle, hybrid owners to invest in solar panels to run their home charging station.

If it galls you to think that your electric vehicle will be charged with coal-generated electricity, Ford and solar technology company SunPower have a proposition for you. The two companies are teaming up on a residential electric vehicle charging infrastructure that homeowners can use to charge up their Focus Electric vehicle through solar means.

The program that the two companies have cooked up is called “Drive Green for Life.” It combines a 2.5-kilowatt rooftop solar system using SunPower panels, a combination that will produce about 3,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity per year. Or, to put it another way, enough power to drive an electric vehicle for about 1,000 miles per month.

The system is compatible with the charging technologies being used by the Focus Electric vehicle series, as well as the C-MAX Energi plug-in hybrid line that Ford expects to roll out in 2012.

The companies say that after federal tax credits, a homeowner could expect to pay about $10,000 for a typical installation; SunPower has developed a series of financing options to help make the idea a bit easier to swallow from a cost standpoint. You can buy the 240-volt charger for the Focus Electric at Best Buy. There is also a 25-year warranty on the panels. The program will cover all 19 markets in the United States where the Focus Electric is being introduced.

Heather Clancy is an award-winning business journalist with a passion for green technology and corporate sustainability issues.

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LEADING THE CHARGE

IPSWICH — EBSCO Publishing installed an electric-vehicle charging station this week, the first of its kind on the North Shore, and the town may not be far behind.

Plans are in motion to put a public charging station on a busy downtown street.

EBSCO's charging station is mounted to the side of a building that abuts a company parking lot and can accommodate two cars at a time. It can be used by EBSCO employees and company guests, free of charge, but not the general public.

Ipswich Town Manger Bob Markel is working with Voltrek, the Andover-based company that installed EBSCO's charging station, to mount a public charging station on a utility pole on Market Street in the heart of downtown Ipswich.

Voltrek and the town would share installation costs, said Markel. The town's electric light department would provide power — and receive the revenue — from the charging station.

Salem is also not far behind.

The Witch City is one of 25 Massachusetts cities and towns to receive a state grant to install electric vehicle charging stations. Two stations, one in the Museum Place Mall Garage and the other at Salem Harbor Garage, could be in use as early as the fall.

Ipswich resident Don Bowen stopped by EBSCO yesterday to demonstrate the charging station with an electric car he's owned for three months.

"You have all the creature comforts of an expensive mid-size car," Bowen said of his Chevy Volt. "You're not sacrificing anything."

EBSCO's charging station delivers 220 volts of electricity — double the amount of an normal electrical outlet. Although each electric car and battery is different, it translates to roughly 20 miles of distance per hour of charge.

While few EBSCO employees own electric vehicles now, the new charging station might encourage those who are thinking of buying one, said Tom Wheeler, chief financial officer.

"When other people see (electric) cars here charging up, especially with gas close to $4 per gallon," employees might be inspired to go electric, he said.

All EBSCO company vehicles are gasoline/electric hybrids, and company president Tim Collins is in the process of buying an electric vehicle.

EBSCO hopes to soon incorporate electric vehicles into its fleet, Wheeler said.

The vehicle charging station is the latest in a laundry list of environmental initiatives the company has championed, from an array of rooftop solar panels to reimbursing employees for commuting on public transportation.

"They are a candidate for the greenest company on the North Shore," Markel said of EBSCO.

In the long run, Markel said he would consider purchasing electric vehicles for the town and installing a charging station at Town Hall.

Electric vehicles are "ideal" for municipal use, said Markel, because they drive a small number of in-town miles each day.

"When electric cars become more competitive (affordable), that's when we're going to move (on the idea)," he said.

According to the Chevrolet website, the Volt retails for $40,280, but purchasers can take advantage of tax credits. Toyota will soon release a plug-in model of its popular Prius hybrid, which can use charging stations.

EBSCO, which provides databases and e-books to libraries and other institutions, employs almost 900 people in downtown Ipswich. Despite a sluggish economy, EBSCO has been doing well, said Wheeler, and is able and ready to provide employee amenities such as the new vehicle charging station.

The company has 50 open positions and just purchased a building on Route 1 in Topsfield, which it hopes to have up and running this winter.

"We're constantly growing," said Wheeler. "Business is great. We're booming. We can't hire fast enough."

Staff writer Bethany Bray can be reached at bbray@salemnews.com and on Twitter @SalemNewsBB.

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Council votes for 10 electric charge stations by August

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AeroVironment, selected to provide charging stations for the Nissan LEAF and BMW ActiveE, and co-developer of the first modern day EV, will install the fast charging stations along a 150-mile span of the I-5. The stations will be placed at convenient locations and will allow drivers to recharge their electric vehicles from a fully-discharged state in less than 30 minutes. View the original article here

Location, Location, Location: Ford Identifies Optimal Location for Electric Vehicle Charge Ports

{"s" : "f","k" : "a00,a50,b00,b60,c10,g00,h00,l10,p20,t10,v00","o" : "","j" : ""} Press Release Source: Ford Motor Company On Friday May 27, 2011, 11:01 am EDT

DEARBORN, Mich., May 27, 2011 /PRNewswire/ --

Ford engineers researched several locations for the Focus Electric and C-MAX Energi charge ports to ensure the port was in the best possible place for customer useThe team used market research studies to identify consumer expectations about how owners would charge the vehicle The front and rear of the vehicle were determined as unsuitable locations for the charge port because they are areas with high risk of damage in small crashes ?Ford's aggressive electrification strategy includes the launch of five electrified vehicles in North America by 2012 and Europe by 2013

When owners of the Ford Focus Electric or C-MAX Energi plug-in hybrid charge up their cars, they'll find a natural, instinctive fit. That's not by chance – it's by design, and it's because Ford engineers did their homework in ensuring customers had the perfect place to "fuel" up.

"After benchmarking multiple competitive vehicles, we found there wasn't much consistency in charge port location," said Susan Curry, Ford Electrified Vehicle Technology Integration supervisor. "We wanted to give customers a location that made the most sense for them and would seem as simple as filling up at the gas station."

Finding the best charge port location may seem inconsequential. However, an electric vehicle owner is likely to plug in or disconnect his or her car up to four times a day, or nearly 1,500 times a year. This is compared to the once a week or 52 times a year frequency of filling up a gas tank. The higher frequency of interaction the charge port entails played a role in Ford wanting to make sure the location was just right.

The team used market research to find out how customers expected to charge up. The research showed most customers would charge their vehicle at home, which was helpful in determining the best place for the port. Feedback also indicated the location should be kept out of areas with high risk of damage in the event of small crashes. This was a driving factor in the choice of the side of the vehicle rather than the front or rear.

To meet customer usage patterns, engineers considered the driver side, the passenger side and the front and rear of the vehicle. Placement in the front could have created problems with customers having to bend down to plug in or out, snow packing, dead insects or debris, and potential damage from car accidents. The rear of the vehicle would have invited the same issue, with damage from fender benders, as well as less accessibility when trying to connect to a charging station.

"The left front fender location keeps the charge port in sight, before the customer enters or exits the car, for an easy reminder to unplug or recharge," said Mary Smith, Ford Electrified Vehicle Technology Integration supervisor. "It creates an intuitive placement for owners that also has aesthetic appeal."

Style and function

Additional thought went into the port location from a style perspective to ensure it would provide that "wow" factor. Being positioned on the side of the vehicle delivers the best visibility, especially when lit to show the charge state, as opposed to being buried in the front with the grille and other style cues.

Other considerations included maximizing commonality with the entire Ford electrified vehicle portfolio, meeting the usage patterns of North American and European customers, and maximizing investment efficiency in terms of new tooled parts and magnitude of the investment.

The demonstration fleet of Ford Escape plug-in hybrid electric vehicles also uses the driver side of the vehicle for the charge port. Engineers received positive feedback from customers on that placement. And they would know best; the Ford Escape plug-in hybrid demo fleet has logged more than 400,000 miles.

The power of choice
Electrification is an important piece of Ford's overall product sustainability strategy, which includes the launch of five electrified vehicles in North America by 2012 and in Europe by 2013. Ford launched the Transit Connect Electric small commercial van in 2010 and will launch the all-new Focus Electric later this year. In 2012, these models will be joined in North America by the new C-MAX Hybrid, a second next-generation lithium-ion battery hybrid and C-MAX Energi plug-in hybrid. This diverse range of electrified vehicles allows Ford to meet a variety of consumer driving needs.

About Ford Motor Company
Ford Motor Company (NYSE:F - News), a global automotive industry leader based in Dearborn, Mich., manufactures or distributes automobiles across six continents. With about 166,000 employees and about 70 plants worldwide, the company's automotive brands include Ford and Lincoln. The company provides financial services through Ford Motor Credit Company. For more information regarding Ford's products, please visit www.ford.com.

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Japanese electric car ‘goes 300km’ on single charge

 Japan’s Keio University professor and auto venture SIM-DRIVE president Hiroshi Shimizu unveils the prototype model of electric vehicle SIM-LEI, which is expected to go on sale in 2013, in Tokyo on May 18, 2011. The SIM-LEI, equipped with high-performance in-wheel motors, achieved 333km of driving distance, twice as long as the current electric vehicles with normal capacity Li-ion batteries. – AFP picTOKYO, May 21 – Japanese developers have unveiled an electric car which they said can travel more than 300 kilometres before its battery runs flat.

Electric vehicle specialist SIM-DRIVE, which hopes to take the car to market by 2013 but gave no projected cost, said its four-seater “SIM-LEI” had motors inside each wheel and a super-light frame, allowing for 333 kilometres of motoring on one charge in a test.

Its designers say they hope the prototype, a joint project among 34 organisations including Mitsubishi Motors and engineering firm IHI, will be sold to car manufacturers for mass production.

Automakers such as Nissan, which launched its all-electric Leaf last year with a 160-kilometre range, are gambling that electric cars with zero tailpipe emissions will catch on and, some time in the future, start to drive traditional petrol-guzzlers off the road.

Electric cars still face key hurdles such as costly batteries and the lack of conveniently-located recharging points, which limits their operating radius. – AFP

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Charge your electric car while shopping at Macy's

 Macy's is teaming up with ECOtality to add electric car charging stations throughout its San Diego locations.

US electric vehicle charging firm ECOtality announced that it would install chargers at Macy's department stores, the latest in a series of moves which will make chargers more accessible to the public.

Shoppers at the popular stores in the San Diego region will be able to charge their electric vehicles while they shop at the outlet, the first department store chain to sign up ECOtality's EV Project.

Installation will kick off in the coming months and if the scheme is popular, ECOtality says that it will be expanded to other locations.

Charging stations are rapidly popping up at big name outlets as more and more electric vehicles hit the road in the US -- ECOtality already offers stations at Best Buy, while its competitor ChargePoint opened the first charging point at a McDonald's restaurant last year.

Nonetheless, not everyone is convinced that EV charging is a panacea for electric motoring -- so far the rapid growth of chargers has failed to dampen fears over the relatively short range and long charge times of electric vehicles.

Better Place, a company which is betting that drivers would prefer to battery swap, rather than battery charge, announced it was moving into China this week after signing a deal with the world's eighth largest utility firm.

Better Place and China Southern Power Grid Co. are set to build a battery switch station in Guangzhou before the year is out, in an attempt to "further advance electric cars with switchable batteries in China."

The firm, which opened its first European center in the Danish capital Copenhagen March 3, also released figures that suggested it's not the only one with a strong interest in battery-swapping technology -- some 100,000 visitors every year have visited its "education" center near Tel Aviv, in Copenhagen, and Toronto.

AFP/Relaxnews

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First of 17 BPW electric vehicle charge stations going in this week

Tulip Time visitors will be able to refuel on elephant ears and lemonade while refueling their electric cars.

Installation of two downtown Holland electric charging stations should be complete today. Another 15 are to be installed around town in the coming months.

ChargePoint America, a program of Coulomb Technologies, is offering the charging stations for free. The Holland Board of Public Works will pay about $100,000 to install them.

Officials hope adding the charging station will help Holland look more like a hub for the battery industry and portray the area as environmentally friendly and at the front end of accepting new technologies.

The two stations on Eighth Street — one between The Holland Sentinel and Readers World buildings and one west of Macatawa Bank — will remain free at least for Tulip Time, the BPW board decided in a 4-1 vote during a special meeting Monday.

Whether the charging stations’ electricity would remain free is up for debate.

“We’re in the job of selling Holland, Michigan, to the greater world, so we can get more jobs here,” Board Member Phil Miller said.

Here’s the logic: If electric car users are encouraged to park in these spaces, people will see the cars and start considering them more the norm, which could, in turn, encourage electric car sales — and the batteries that go in them, made by LG Chem and Johnson Controls Saft, which are investing millions of dollars in new advanced battery plants in Holland.

The BPW might face some restrictions on whether it can give away electricity.

“I think we ought to be very careful about the policy of giving away electricity for free,” Board Member Jim Storey said. “To subsidize people who spent big bucks on cars sends the wrong message to people we just levied a rate increase on.”

Charging station locations

Holland City Hall
Parking ramp on Seventh Street between College and
Columbia avenues
*Eighth Street between The Holland Sentinel and Readers World buildings
*Eighth Street west of Macatawa Bank
Hope College (Martha Miller parking lot)
Holland Public Schools
Padnos Transportation Center at Lincoln and Eighth Street
Holland Board of Public Works Hastings Avenue service center
Doubletree Hotel
Residence Inn
Holland Aquatic Center
Haworth Inn
CityFlats Hotel
West Ottawa High School
Holland Christian High School
Holland Chamber of Commerce parking lot
Felch Street Shopping Center
* Installed this week

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Nissan all-electric vehicle may excite people who get a charge from different car

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