Coulomb unveils electric-car charging stations

Coulomb is developing plug-in hybrid chargers for public places.

(Credit: Kim Smith/General Motors)

The city of San Jose, Calif., will be the first to test electric-car charging stations from start-up Coulomb Technologies.

The company's products include 110-volt outlets that can be outfitted in public and mounted on poles, such as streetlights.

Coulomb is designing ChargePoint Network stations to scale to the national level, with a projected need of two stations per car, as electricity-powered vehicles become popular. Each Smartlet station would cost between $1,000 and $2,000 for a business or municipality to set up.

The company aims to demonstrate its technology on Tuesday on a Saturn Vue plug-in hybrid at the Plug-In 2008 conference in San Jose.

"We're listening to automakers, and we're laying out the infrastructure to help them succeed," said Richard Lowenthal, Coulomb's CEO. The former mayor of Cupertino, Calif., is on the waiting list for a Tesla electric Roadster.

Because there are only 54 million U.S. garages for 247 million registered passenger cars, Coulomb eventually could fill a need for the majority of drivers of electric cars, he said. Car-sharing services would potentially make ideal customers for Coulomb, he added.

Those at Coulomb Technologies envision a subscription model that would charge a premium for tapping into the grid during peak demand times. They also tout utility grid management technology.

The company would provide charging stations with wireless communications, managing a mesh network to authenticate users, and manage energy flow and metering. Users, hosts, and utilities would access GPS-linked data online.

Coulomb's team includes former executives from Tesla Motors, Cisco Systems, Lucent Technologies, 3Com, and Echelon.

The Campbell, Calif., company said it is talking with potential customers in other California cities, as well as in Texas, Colorado, Florida, and New York.

The two-year contract makes San Jose the first U.S. city to offer electric-car charging within an existing infrastructure, San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed said in a statement.

Also aiming to advance the urban adoption of plug-in cars on Monday, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom invited companies to share their ideas for electric-vehicle infrastructure. Lowenthal aims for Coulomb to participate.

Coulomb's charging stations and network would be connected wirelessly.

(Credit: Coulomb Technologies)

[theBike45]

Rather misleading to claim 54 million garages for 254 million cars. Many garages hold two cars and there are plenty of carports, as well as townhouses where electrical outlets can
easily be installed where the resident parks, and condos are already putting outlets intheir sparking lots and underground garages as well. This plan makes the bad mistake of assuming that batteries in the future will not have rapid recharge capabilities. If they do, this is the wrong plan - existing gas stations will need to be configured for fast recharges, using battery banks that are continuously drawing power from the grid and then can quickly dump a load of juice into a car that pulls in for recharging.

[brett_cgb]

> Coulomb is designing ChargePoint Network stations to scale to the national level,
> with a projected need of two stations per car, as electricity-powered vehicles
> become popular.

Shouldn't that be "two cars per station"?

[NiraliSherni]

Marvelous move to install charging stations where car owners can use them. this is a real incentive for people to buy and use electric cars. I think more and more civic authorities are going to realise that it is a great idea to encourage EVs in any way that they can.

[George-Lewis]

This is GREAT! We hear of many advances in electric cars but until now, this is the first I hear of a company here in the USA FINALLY working with a city to start setting up the infrastructure! I heard that France and Israel is going to do this... and also that London already has free parking and charging station for the down-town area! There's more information on these subjects at: www.HiddenBuzz.com

[simonjones9]

Hi


Worth checking www.parkandpower.co.uk they operate in this space and are setting up in the US

[saghorizon84]

Does Coulomb believe in "green"? I think not. They want to charge to buy thier units and then they want users to buy minutes from them each month to be able to use thier units. Much like a buy as you go cell phone. Since the electric cars can not go far on a charge yet and it also takes quite a few hours to charge an electric vehicle - why would anyone in thier right mind want to buy one of those chargers? They are just in this business to take advantage of the new green move towards electric vehicles. What are the owners and sellers of these units driving - that would be most interesting to know!!!!!!!!1