Green Options » eTec

Three Key Elements to ECOtality’s Electric Vehicle Project

Jonathan Read — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 20:57:48 +0000

-Above: the Nissan “Leaf” Electric Vehicle (learn more on the Nissan/eTEC partnership).

With $99.8 million from the Federal Government, ECOtality is on a mission to make America plug-in ready.

There’s been a tremendous flurry of activity in recent weeks with President Obama’s announcement of $2.4 billion in grants to accelerate the manufacturing and deployment of the next generation of U.S. batteries and electric vehicles. We at ECOtality and our subsidiary Electric Transportation Engineering Corporation (eTec) are thrilled to be a part of that activity as the recipients of $99.8 million grant for the largest electrification transportation project in history.

Our history in electric transportation dates back to 1989 and we have worked on every EV initiative in North America since then. Today, through our grant from the federal government, we’re embarking on an exciting project to truly make America plug-in ready: we are partnering with Nissan to deploy 5,000 zero-emission battery electric vehicles and 12,750 charging stations in five markets across the United States.

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PGE to Participate in Largest Electric Vehicle Project in U.S. History

Elaina Medina — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 19:09:48 +0000

Editor’s Note: This is a guest contribution by Elaina Medina of Portland General Electric.

This week Portland General Electric welcomed news it was named a strategic participant and Oregon was named one of five test markets for the largest rollout of EVs and an associated charging station network in U.S. history.

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ECOtality and Nissan to get $100M from Department of Energy

Elizoebeth Jensen — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 22:27:00 +0000

The Electric Transportation Engineering Corporation (eTec), a subsidiary of ECOtality, Inc. and Nissan North America win a $99.8M grant from the Department of Energy to support the largest deployment of electrical vehicles (EVs) and charging infrastructure in U.S. history.

The project will use Nissan’s LEAF, an early stage zero-emission EV to study and develop the logistics and necessary scale behind the implementation of a national charging infrastructure, that will in turn, support large-scale EV deployment. Initial stages of the project include the deployment of 5,000 EVs and EV charging stations in Arizona, California, Oregon, Tennessee, and Washington. Don Karner, President of eTec, sums up the industry e-coup:

By studying lessons learned from electric vehicle operations and the infrastructure supporting these first 5,000 vehicles, the Project enables the streamlined deployment of the next 5,000,000 electric vehicles…Nissan and over 40 government and industry partners, will enable this Project to successfully pave the way for electric transportation nationwide.
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Creating the Infrastructure of Innovation

Nathan Isaacs — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 20:57:02 +0000

August is hotter than ever for those of us who envision a future where the streets are populated with plug-in hybrids and electric vehicles and powered by renewable energies.

The month began with the unveiling of Nissan’s Leaf electric vehicle. On Wednesday, President Obama and the Department of Energy announced $2.4 billion in grants to fuel the development of the electric vehicle industry and reduce our nation’s dependence on oil.

Next week opens with the second annual Plug-In 2009 in Long Beach, Calif.

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Portland Lands Major Upgrade to Electric Vehicle Infrastructure

Sam Adams — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 22:47:10 +0000

For a city with so many amazing trees, Portland is getting ready to add a bunch of new LEAFs to our streets.

No, that’s not a typo. I’m talking about the LEAF, Nissan’s just-unveiled electric vehicle, which is set to hit dealerships in the fall of 2010. In our quest to be the nation’s leader in electric vehicle infrastructure, usage and development, the Portland region took a big step forward today with the announcement that Nissan and eTec selected Oregon as one of five test markets for the largest deployment of EV’s and the associated charging station network in American history.

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How to Build an Electric Car Charging Infrastructure: Smart Grids, Fast Charging and Universal Access

Nick Chambers — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 13:38:43 +0000

In a slew of announcements this week, a picture of what the future of plug-in vehicle charging might look like is starting to emerge.

The Problem:

There are 54 million garages for the 247 million registered cars in the US, meaning that the majority of cars are parked overnight in parking structures, parking lots or curbside.

As a result, most potential plug-in vehicle consumers do not have an adequate place to charge their vehicles. This problem is even more pronounced in urban areas like San Francisco, where only about 16% of cars are parked in garages overnight and the rest end up curbside or in parking lots.

Also, although the US power grid probably has enough overall capacity to supply energy to a nation of plug-in vehicles, it may not have the ability to charge them when they all plug-in and demand energy at the same time — say 6 pm every weekday.

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