First Electric Car Charging Stations Open in San Jose
January 6, 2009 by admin · Leave a Comment
Today the city of San Jose, California and Coulomb Technologies, announced the availability of the first ChargePoint Network public charging infrastructure for electric cars.
You can sign up for options to fit their lifestyle including a limited time offer “Basic Access” subscription plan, which includes free charging through 2009. The way it works is that you subscribe to the ChargePoint Network and receive a ChargePoint Smart Card which then allows you to charge your car at any Smartlet Charging Station. Read more
$1B Electric Car Network Announced for California
The electric vehicle charging startup, Better Place, has struck a deal with California, including the cities of San Francisco, San Jose and Oakland, to set up a $1 billion charging network for electric cars, with car availability beginning in 2012.
The Better Place network in the Bay Area is a plan to support electric car development throughout the state, unlike its charging network in Israel. The deal in Israel involved a tie-up with Nissan-Renault to make the small cars that work with the stations, which swap out depleted batteries for new ones.
The thousands of Better Place stations to be installed in northern California will be able to charge any type of electric car, allowing charging of cars with either fixed or replaceable batteries.
The announcement took place today at San Francisco’s city hall, and was attended by the mayors of the three cities, as well as governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and Better Place’s founder, Shai Agassi.Details were sketchy, with only the amount of capital to be invested and the project’s start date being announced. Permitting will begin in early 2009 and construction in 2010. This does look like California is finally becoming serious about electric cars.
