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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Petrol prices makes going electric more enticing

By Paul van der Werff

With petrol hitting record-equalling highs of $2.18 overnight, more drivers will be mulling over the merits of going electric – but fully electric cars remain a costly option.

The Blade Electron is the only fully electric vehicle available commercially in New Zealand; Llyn Richards bought his a year ago, but it wasn't cheap – about $67,000.

Blade Electric vehicles, which is based in Australia, manufacture the car.

The process involves retro fitting a brand new Hyundai Getz.

“We completely strip it, all the electronics are new, obviously the fuel and batteries, that’s all new, the motors the drive system so it’s a new car with a whole new drive system,” says Ross Blade.

The car is limited by the size of its lithium ion batteries and can run for 100km before it needs recharging from a normal household power point.

But Mr Richards says despite that limitation he is able to run the car at less than one cent a kilometre.

“My wife and I go past the petrol stations and go, ‘oh golly gosh, petrol’s gone up again’, as we go sailing past and it’s only cost us next to nothing.”

Another option that the large car companies feel will be more viable for the global market are the plug-in hybrids.

“What it allows you to do is run the car around town for a maximum of around 25km without using the fossil engine or without using any sort of fossil fuel,” says Roy Trimbel of Toyota NZ.

Cars like the Electron and the plug-in Prius give drivers the possibility of never having to purchase petrol again.

However, the mass production of cars like these are some years off.

Ross Blade says it will be five years before we see electric cars on the roads en masse while Toyota are remaining coy about the mass production of the plug-in Prius.

“These are test cars which we need to emphasis and they may not be introduced into the market place,” Mr Trimbel says.

They are even less confident about any future for fully electric cars.

“No motor company is in a position to sustainably or to actually build these vehicles at a cost that people can afford to buy them.”

But Llyn Richards is just glad that he could afford to buy an Electron and that he is doing his bit for the planet.

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Ameren plugs their plug-in car; what are the pros and cons of going electric?

If Ameren Illinois wasn't making such a fuss about it, its i MiEV (Mitsubushi innovative Electric Vehicle) might have caught observers by surprise when it rolled up Wednesday at the Ameren Illinois Operating Center in Belleville.

Except for a little tire noise, the vehicle is exceptionally quiet, said Eric Kozak, managing supervisor of the Ameren Illinois fleet.

The i MiEV is a battery-electric vehicle that can travel about 80 miles on a full charge. Ameren Illinois is taking the car around its service area for the next two weeks to show it off.

"We can show our employees and customers what an electric vehicle looks like and discuss the advantages and disadvantages, he said.

Its advantages are that it is quiet, cheap to operate and it can be plugged into an ordinary 110-volt electrical outlet to recharge, he said. Disadvantages include the need to charge it frequently, limited range and high initial price.

Kozak said to charge the car fully for its 80-mile range takes about $2 of electricity. To drive that 80 miles in a normal car at an average of 20 miles per gallon of gasoline at the current price of $3.69 per gallon would be $14.76.

It takes about eight hours to fully charge. For an additional cost, a 220-volt plug is available that will let the car charge a little faster.

"So it is economical," he said. "The initial upfront cost is what is holding it back."

Kozak said Mitsubishi is estimating a $30,000 base price for the car, but it would come with a $7,500 government tax credit. It will be available in 2012.

Kozak said the car has been tested in various outlets at the company and also at employees' homes, and not once has the car failed to charge.

He said that except for the lack of engine noise, the car drives like a normal small car. It has a regenerative braking system that puts a small amount of energy back into the battery when the car is slowing down.

However, alternators have not yet been developed that can recharge the large battery packs while an electric car is in motion.

"Running the heater or air conditioner will reduce the estimated mileage range," he said. "I could see that on the indicator this morning when I turned on the defroster. It dropped, but it came back up when I turned off the defroster."

Kozak said Ameren Illinois customers already are asking questions. Are there going to be charging stations? What do I need to have in my garage?

"We do ask them to contact us when they buy a plug-in car," he said. "If three or four neighbors have the cars, we may need to upgrade the transformers outside. There is no charge for any service up to the electric meter on the house."

He said most people won't need to modify their outlets or do any work inside their houses to accommodate the cars.

Ameren Illinois is in discussions with various groups about charging stations and other issues, such as alternative rates related to the electric cars.

To ask questions or make comments, e-mail the company at corpcomm@ameren.com.

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