By Richard Lowenthal •
August 24, 2009
Scanning the week’s news of the leading fleet magazine, more than half the headlines are focused on automotive manufacturers including Toyota, Ford, Nissan and their commitment to greening of their fleets by moving to electric vehicle technologies.
For example, Nissan plans to use a $1.6 billion U.S. loan to rework a Tennessee factory so that battery-powered cars can be manufactured there. Ford Motor Company said it has developed an intelligent vehicle-to-grid communications and control system for its plug-in hybrid electric vehicles that “talks” with the nation’s electric grid.
Indeed it is exciting to read on a daily basis how much closer we are to the reality of EV’s for consumers and fleets. Fleets will be the first mass adopters of EVs and PHEVs. We are already seeing businesses, government agencies, cities and countries across the world that are making significant and meaningful steps to reducing their fuel costs, our nation’s dependence on imported fuel, and our carbon footprint by converting their gas guzzling and polluting fleets to eco friendly EV’s…but what about the infrastructure needed to support such vehicles? Is there different technology needed to support EV fleets vs. consumer EVs? Just what are the needs of fleet managers when it comes to EV fleets?
By Andrew Williams •
July 21, 2009
Holland has announced plans to install five electric car charging bays, the first of their kind ever seen in the country.
To move to set up five Electromotive Elektrobays follows a government drive to improve air quality. The stations will be located at strategic points across the country, including Schipol International Airport and central Rotterdam. Another will be based at Amsterdam’s Centraal Station railway hub, where it will power-up the city’s spanking new fleet of all-electric Tuc Tuc taxi vehicles.
Coulomb Technologies was founded in 2007 with the mission to ensure that anyone who is considering the choice to buy an electric vehicle will have adequate access to fuel for the cars.
In the US there are 247 million cars but only 53 million home garages, meaning that a lot of electric vehicles will need to be fueled outside the home garage. Exacerbating the situation, according to studies at UC Davis, 80% of owners of electric vehicles will want to charge more than once a day.
It comes to this: we need charging opportunities where our cars are parked when we sleep and when we work. Since Coulomb’s founding, much as been written regarding the “chicken and egg problem” with infrastructure and vehicles. Will people buy electric vehicles if they don’t have a place to charge them, and conversely, will anyone buy infrastructure if they don’t see cars?
Amsterdam - On May 27, 2009, 365-Energy Group announced a pilot-program that could make Amsterdam the leader an Electric Vehicle (EV) infrastructure in Europe.
By 2012, the city of Amsterdam plans to be home to 200 electric vehicle charging stations. These 200 stations, courtesy of US-based Coulomb Technologies, are expected to serve 10,000 cars by the year 2015.
Excitement is high over the two-year public demonstration program, which will use 45 Coulomb Technologies‘ ChargePoint(TM) Networked Charging Stations as their source of fuel. Richard Lowenthall, CEO of the California-based company, announced that “the city of Amsterdam will have the largest network of smart charging stations in Europe for fleet and consumer charging.” He went on to say that, “Coulomb is providing an inclusive open architecture so that all electric vehicle owners in Amsterdam can easily make the switch from gasoline to electricity as a fuel.”
By Paul Smith •
April 16, 2009
As the auto industry as we know it continues to crumble, a new model is emerging out of the Netherlands, known currently as c,mm,n. Open source design has proven itself successful in a number of arenas from software to restaurants. But a car? Yes, one where the design will be made available to the public, with the provision that their design be likewise made open to the public to do their own revisions and modifications on it.
Who could have thought that times of war could bring us such fashionable accessories? With a little crafty ingenuity, Trina and Andy, the couple behind Amsterdam's Katrina Kaye, have transformed gas mask bags into chic urban accessories.
"The concept started as a sideline for Trina in England when working as a graphic designer. She started recycling wool and making gorgeous throws for a shop in our local village. The concept
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