San Diego to test mobile electric-car charger

Plug-in electric car drivers in San Diego will be able to charge up at a friend's house without leaving behind a hefty electric bill.

Utility San Diego Gas & Electric said on Wednesday that it plans to use a mobile car-charging device from Juice Technologies as part of a trial of plug-in electric cars in the region.

A portable smart charger that will be tested for billing an electric-car owner's utility account while on the go.

(Credit: Juice Technologies)

As part of a giant Department of Energy battery funding project, the city is one of five locations in the U.S. to set up a network of charging stations for about 1,000 Nissan Leaf sedans made available to consumers.

Juice Technologies, based in Columbus, Ohio, will supply its Plug Smart "intelligent charger" which should allow people to charge cars anywhere in SDG&E's service territory and have the usage billed to the driver's account.

The product, which can fit inside of a car trunk, also allows people to schedule car charging to take advantage of off-peak rates and to view data, such as the amount of kilowatt-hours used and carbon emissions.

The utility wants to use the charger to let consumers control charging and view their energy usage via the Web or a cell phone when used with a smart meter, said Hal Snyder, vice president of customer solutions for SDG&E, in a statement.

Juice Technologies will show a prototype of its Plug Smart device at the Plug In 2009 conference in Long Beach, Calif., next week.

The portable device would address one of the conundrums associated with plug-in electric vehicles: how to "refuel" on the go when there's a lack of public charging stations.

Nissan's all-electric cars, which are supposed to have a 100-mile range, are expected to be available next year. But there's significant concern with the lack of charging infrastructure--often referred to as the electric car industry's chicken and egg problem. The Energy Department program includes $400 million, out of $2.4 billion, for charging infrastructure for consumers' cars and trucks.

[skswave]

Charging should be a simple location based service.

Put the meter in the car.
Put the meter on the net so that it can verify a PLUG is enrolled
Put GPS in the meter so that the location of the car is well established
Have your friend log into a web site and enroll their plug in their driveway. Google earth can help verify location based on street address.
Now when the car is plugged in it can negotiate with the website if there is an enrolled plug in the area if the plug is not enrolled then the car won't charge.
When the car is done charging it can report its KWH usage to the website and a payment can be made to the owner of the plug by pay pal. This can work everywhere in the country today.

In the future as there become too many plugs it is easy to add identity to the plug and also security to the plug so that it is only enabled by an authorized meter.

Steven Sprague

[envirwords]

Besides infrastructure development -- someone needs to shorten the time it takes to charge an electric car battery for longer distances and address greenhouse gas emissions from the charging station energy source. http://envirowords.com/public/?p=736

[willdryden]

This is on the list of things to do. The batteries required are still expensive.

[rmva]

Just exactly how much does it cost to re-charge a plug-in once? My "friend" is willing to feed me a meal, but not let me recharge my battery on his dime. Some kind of friend!

This sounds like an extremely small niche product.

[willdryden]

Depends on the kWh used to charge the battery and the rate paid for the electricity. If you are using 120V, carry a kill-a-watt and pay him for the electricity used.

[vlai77]

I think the car industry should standardize the placement of their car batteries.
Eventually, all the gas station can be partially converted to car batteries exchanging station.
So, a car running low on battery will be able to pull into any gas station, and drive up to
a platform where some mechanical/electrical machine will be able to unplug and plug
in a fully charged battery. So, this will be almost equivalent to filling up the car with gas,
maybe even faster if the exchanging of battery can be done fast enough.
Now, the car will drive off with a fully charged battery and the already depleted battery will
be stowed away for charging.... I think that would make sense.

[willdryden]

That is what Project Better Place is working on. Getting all manufacturers to agree to this will be tough. I would not want to risk getting a damaged pack in exchange.

[dougbugl]

you mean to tell me that nobody has built a simple charging station with a credit card swipe using GSM connectivity, a watt meter to display watts used, and the price per KW so people know what rate they're going to pay? This is a simple problem but you can bet that with a utility involved, they're probably throwing in all kinds of useless junk and cranking up the cost. It reminds me of how the auto industry got an "expert" to say that car manufacturers had to pay people $17,000 and give them the car for them to use an electric car.

Why all this fancy stuff added to the car when all it needs is simple technology packaged in a box anyone can mount on a pole with electricity nearby? And even easier setup is to have the box use a network interface to tie into paypal so apartments, condo's, and businesses can bolt this to the outside wall, connect it up and start making money for very little investment. THIS is what should be getting funding and not some high end deal tied to one particular vehicle. Anybody who makes their own EV from a used car should be just as easily able to use the system. But you know, open it up and the utility and auto industries lose control of the success or failure of the project.

[AppleSuxLeo]

A small , efficient gas engine to run the generator is best.(for cars) That is how trains work. The diesel engine powers the generator which then powers the "traction motors"

[willdryden]

That is what the Volt is. This will work best for people needing unlimited range until fast chargers are as available as gas stations. For a second car or city only car, electric only is better since there is less to break.

[EvanSei]

good idea, what no put down you say ok, electric cars are a short term solution when those batteries go bad nobody will want to pay to replace them.