Coulomb Technologies Celebrates with US Department of Energy, City of LA Significant ChargePoint America Electric Vehicle Program Milestone
Friday, May 13, 2011
Los Angeles, CA – May 13, 2011 - Coulomb Technologies joined with the US Department of Energy and the City of Los Angeles today to celebrate a significant milestone for the ChargePoint America program, at a ceremony today in Exposition Park hosted by the Honorable Antonio Villaraigosa, Mayor of Los Angeles. US Energy Secretary Steven Chu and Coulomb Technologies founder and CTO Richard Lowenthal unveiled the 500th ChargePoint America station available now on the ChargePoint® Network. Others attending the ceremony included ChargePoint America program vehicle partners Chevrolet, Ford and smart USA as well as electric vehicles from Nissan, Tesla Motors, Coda and Smith.
Coulomb
Technologies is a member of the Electric Drive
Transportation Association (EDTA)
http://www.electricdrive.org/
The $37 million ChargePoint America
program is made possible by a $15M grant funded
by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act
through the Transportation Electrification
Initiative administered by the Department of
Energy, combined with $22 million from other
public agencies including the California Energy
Commission and private industry. Adding to the
existing ChargePoint Network, the world’s
largest charging network containing the largest
number of EV drivers, the ChargePoint America
program will provide 4,600 public and home
ChargePoint Networked Charging Stations in
2011.
Since Coulomb’s ChargePoint America program
announcement on June 1st 2010, free program
charging stations have been awarded and
installed in all of the original nine program
regions: Detroit, New York, Orlando, Fla.,
Washington DC, Sacramento, Calif., the San
Jose/San Francisco Bay Area, Bellevue/Redmond,
Wash, Los Angeles and Austin, TX. Recently,
the program announced expansion into six new
cities including Baltimore, MD, Central Florida
(Tampa), Boston, Santa Barbara, CA, Ventura, CA
and Santa Cruz, CA. The ChargePoint stations
at Exposition Park are free and open to the
public and were installed by the Los Angeles
Department of Water and Power (DWP) and made
part of the ChargePoint America program.
“With America’s families and businesses
facing high gasoline prices, saving money at
the pump is especially important today. So we
are proud to support this project, which is
making it easier for Americans to charge up
their vehicles, instead of fill up tanks,”
Secretary Chu said. “While there is no silver
bullet for high gas prices, we are taking
significant steps to help protect Americans in
the long-term, reduce oil imports and move our
country to a clean energy future.”
“As the car capital of the world, Los Angeles
has a competitive advantage to leverage our
massive market and iconic car culture to stand
at the forefront of the electric vehicle
revolution,” said Mayor Villaraigosa, “I
would like to thank Secretary Chu and Coulomb
for investing in our public charging
infrastructure. This is a yet another step in
our proactive efforts to ensure that our
streets are ready for the thousands of electric
cars that will be sold here.”
The ChargePoint Network of charging stations
provide EV drivers easy-to-use unique services
including the ability to: check real-time
status and location of unoccupied charging
stations, reserve a charging station, track and
report greenhouse gas and gasoline savings,
receive charging status notification by SMS,
email or smart phone (iPhone and Blackberry)
applications. Coulomb’s ChargePoint Network
is open to all drivers of plug-in vehicles and
all manufacturers of electric vehicle charging
stations.
The ChargePoint Network enables businesses to
provide a distinctive charging services,
attract new customers and generate revenue from
EV charging. Charging station owners can set
their own prices for charging as a function of
time of day, calendar date - much like a
parking meter. Stations can also be configured
to provide "free" access to EV drivers.
Station owners can:
- Recover energy costs with PCI compliant driver billing
- Track and report energy usage and savings for greenhouse gas and fuel
- Set multiple service plans for EV driver usage
- Create flexible billing options for their customers without a subscription via contactless credit cards (Visa, MasterCard, AMEX, and Discover)
- Access 24 X 7 station monitoring and driver support
- Post custom advertising and greetings on the charging station display
“We are proud and honored the Obama administration is recognizing this milestone of the ChargePoint America program,” said Richard Lowenthal. “The expansion of the ChargePoint Network into Los Angeles is significant as this is the largest auto market in the world and yet Los Angeles is the recognized leader in taking action to keep clean air. But this goes beyond good energy policy; every time we install a ChargePoint America station here is Los Angeles, three Californians get work for a day – one to build the station and two to install it.”
"The California Energy Commission is proud to be supporting electric vehicle charging efforts in Los Angeles as well EV charging stations throughout our State," said Energy Commission Vice Chair Jim Boyd. "California spends an average of $150 million a day on petroleum fuels and the transportation sector produces nearly 40 percent of the state's greenhouse gas emissions. By increasing our support of electric vehicle technology, California is creating a new transportation infrastructure, improving our air quality, strengthening our nation's energy security, and reducing the impact of global climate change.
"With funding from the Alternative and Renewable Fuel and Vehicle Technology Program (AB 118), the Energy Commission has awarded nearly $22 million for the electric charging infrastructure statewide. Coulomb Technologies has received $3.41 million from the Commission's AB 118 fund with $5 million in matching federal funds for the installation and upgrade of nearly 1,300 public EV charging stations in Los Angeles, the San Francisco Bay Area, and Sacramento," Boyd added.
In the greater Los Angeles area, Coulomb’s ChargePoint America program is offering hundreds of free stations for public and home charging to individuals and businesses. Organizations in and around Los Angeles interested in receiving free public charging stations should visit the ChargePoint America web site www.chargepointamerica.com and sign up. Individuals interested in purchasing a program vehicle should see if they qualify for a free home charging station.
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