Update on San Francisco Chargers - the EV and Plug-In Hybrid Type
By John O'Dell February 18, 2009
Baby steps.
That San Francisco EV charging press conference this morning was to announce that the city, in cooperation with electric vehicle charging systems manufacturer Coulomb Technologies, has installed a trio of charging stations across the street from city hall as part of a two-year test program.
The chargers will be used by drivers of the city fleet's handful of electric vehicles and converted plug-in hybrids as well as by private citizens using converted plug-ins that have been added -- one each at this point -- to the fleets of private car-sharing services Zip Car and City Car Share.
Coulomb's chargers already are in use in the nearby City of San Jose, and the company says it is selling them at a fairly steady clip to operators of private service stations who want to attract EV and PHEV owners (more than 40 orders at last count, all in California).
The San Francisco system features the first use of Coulomb's new fleet management program, which enables the networked chargers to communicate all sorts of information about the cars being charged to a central monitoring post.
By retrieving that info on their cell phones, drivers can find out when their vehicle has been fully charged and be alerted when it needs charging or if someone unplugs it in the middle of a recharging session.
Fleet operators will be able to use the data to calculate fuel savings and greenhouse gas reductions and to track which vehicles are being charged or are in need of a charge.
A representative of the San Francisco Public Utilities Commmission said electricity for the charging stations comes from city-owned clean hydroelectric power.
It's not a citywide charging infrastructure, as we'd hoped, but it is a start.
LEAVE A COMMENT