workplace charging Archives -

For Today: The state of EV charging, Stella wins World Solar Challenge

The state of charging in the U.S.: The U.S. public charging infrastructure continues to grow, helping first-time electric vehicle buyers make that big decision to convert over to the new technology. The U.S. Alternative Fuels Data Center reports 16,457 EV charging stations are in place, with 44,999 chargers in operation; 2,183 of them are fast chargers, including Tesla’s Superchargers. Available charging stations are in place at retail stores, shopping malls, movie theaters, and restaurants; and more are showing up at workplace parking lots and city government sites such as libraries. Recent first-time EV buyers are finding what EV owners have experienced in recent years. They charge their EVs at home overnight, and top off for shorter periods while at home our out running errands. Most of the U.S. charging infrastructure is located on the coasts, and fast charging stations differ based on the electric car being driven. EVgo is one of the infrastructure suppliers working at bringing more fast chargers to public charging sites. Most of them have 50-to-60 kW charging capacity for now, and up to 150 kW; with testing being done on chargers that can go up to 350 kW. That ultra-fast charger will be able to give long-range EV about 250 miles of range in about 15 minutes of charging. Most of the changes currently being made at charging stations come from upgrades at these stations, but moving up to high-capacity fast chargers will take more space, construction, and investments in the future. “For the new stations that we’re designing where possible, we’re reserving the power capacity required to serve those higher levels and laying out the stations so that all it will take is a booster in the back of the stations so that you can get up to the higher level,” said Terry O’Day, vice president of product strategy and market development at EVgo.

Electric transportation leaders speaking on Oct. 1: Beyond the Beltway, an Electric Drive Transportation Association (EDTA) Leader Series event, will be taking place in two days at the National Press Club in Washington, DC, from 1:00 pm to 4:00 pm EDT. Market and policy influencers will gather to detail market trends and policy initiatives outside Washington that are driving the future of electric transportation. The event will feature expert insights, opportunities for Q&A, networking with industry and policy leaders, and refreshments. Speakers include Karen Lefkowitz, VP Utility of the Future, Pepco Holdings, Inc.; Sue Gander, Director of Energy, Environment & Transportation Division, National Governors Association Center for Best Practices; and Genevieve Cullen, President, EDTA. The first panel, Scaling Solutions: Regional Electrification Strategies, will include Jeanette Shaw, Director of Government Relations, Forth, Elaine O’Grady, Senior Policy Advisor, Northeast States for Coordinated Air Use Management, Bill Elrick, Executive Director, California Fuel Cell Partnership, Roland Hwang, Director of Energy & Transportation Program, Natural Resources Defense Council, and moderator Lisa Jerram, Senior Policy Advisor, Navigant Research. The second panel, The New Movers in Electric Mobility: Public/Private Collaboration, will include Colleen Quinn, SVP Global Public Policy, ChargePoint, Terry O’Day, VP Product Strategy & Market Development, EVgo, Matthew Nelson, Director of Government Affairs, Electrify America, Ashley Horvat, VP Public & Private Partnerships, Greenlots, and moderator Nick Nigro, Founder, Atlas Public Policy.

Stella wins World Solar Challenge: Solar Team Eindhoven and its Stella Vie electric vehicle earlier this month won the 30th World Solar Challenge in Australia, with 42 competitors racing to take the lead. The race covered 3,022 kilometers (1,880-mile) race from Darwin to Adelaide. Stella was able to gain double the efficiency points of the second-place team. The solar-powered electric car uses a unique Solar Navigator platform from Ericsson’s Connected Urban Transport. Stella was started and created years ago by Solar Team Eindhoven from the Eindhoven (Netherlands) University of Technology, and has been widely recognized and is gaining support. In 2015, Stella won the TechCrunch award for biggest technology achievements during the 8th annual “Crunchies Awards” against an impressive list of contenders.

For Today: Tesla recalling Model X electric SUV, Richard Branson investing in Hyperloop One

Tesla Model X recall: Tesla is recalling about 11,000 Model X electric SUVs to correct a problem in the second-row seats. For the Model X units manufactured between Oct. 28, 2016, and Sept. 1, 2017 with a second row seat that folds down flat, Tesla will be correcting an error that could mean the second row seats would move forward in a crash. The problem stems from incorrectly adjusted seat cables and was discovered through internal testing. It only affects about 3% of those vehicles. The electric automaker is taking on the voluntary recall through a 10-minute procedure done by mobile service operators. The company hasn’t received reports of any issues or accidents related to the problem; customers were to be alerted starting yesterday.

What Ford learned from workplace charging: Ford Motor Co. will be tripling its electric vehicle charging stations available to its employees in North America from 200 to 600 chargers over the next three years. The first 200 have been in place for three years and have been the source of data on charging habits used by the automaker in its electrification strategy. Ford reported that access to workplace charging appears to be crucian for EV owners and can influence their purchase decisions. Bringing more workplace charging will be part of mass market adoption of EV technology for Ford and the overall industry, the company said. Through early August, Ford’s charging network had provided about 2 million miles of electric driving to its employees.

VW electric trucks and buses: Volkswagen Group’s truck and bus division will be investing about $1.7 billion into new technology to support battery electric commercial vehicles targeted at urban markets with growing concern over poor air quality. Andreas Renschler, head of the unit, said Wednesday that the investment will go into electric drivetrains, autonomous systems, and cloud-based software. The new technology will end up in systems used by the company’s U.S. truck affiliate, Navistar International. In Europe, it will go to the company’s MAN and Scania nameplates for all-electric buses that will come to European cities next year, he said. That goes with offerings to bus operators that include biodiesel, hybrid systems, and natural gas vehicles.

Clean vehicle jobs: A new interactive map shows that the Midwest, Northeast, and California have been at the heart of job creation and economic growth in clean vehicles. As the federal standards for fuel economy and emissions are under review, the BlueGreen Alliance Foundation issued a study looking at what’s happened since the federal standards were finalized five years ago. The map highlights advanced vehicle, component, and material manufacturing facilities, and jobs across the U.S. It was done to provide a local-level view of innovation across the industry that supports energy security, economic growth, and global competitiveness.

California supports more clean vehicle programs: On Tuesday, California Gov. Jerry Brown signed several bills to strengthen California’s zero- and near-zero-emission vehicles. One of them, A.B.739, requires at least 15% of specified heavy-duty vehicles newly purchased by state agencies to be zero emission vehicles beginning in 2025; and at least 30% of those vehicles to be ZEVs beginning in 2030. S.B.498 will require at least 50% of the state’s light-duty vehicle fleet to be ZEVs by 2025, up from the current goal of 25% by 2020. The bill also requires the California Air Resources Board to develop policies and programs that will increase ZEVs in private-sector fleets. Several other assembly bills were signed into law, including one that allow certain clean vehicles to access high-occupancy vehicle lanes, and another authorizing local jurisdictions to dedicate on-street parking spaces for electric vehicle charging.

USPS going electric: The U.S. Postal Service is getting ready to bring in electrified delivery trucks, according to photos received by Trucks.com. One of the publication’s readers sent in photo of a road tests being done about 30 miles northwest of Washington, D.C., of a USPS badged mail delivery truck likely coming from Workhorse Group and truck body manufacturer VT Hackney. They’re among five entries into the USPS’ Next Generation Delivery Vehicle Program. Workhorse confirmed it was their truck in a tweet Monday after the story was first published in Trucks.com. Workhorse will supply the powertrain and chassis, and VT Hackney will build the body if they win the contract with USPS.

Richard Branson investing in Hyperloop One: Hyperloop One has gained funding from billionaire Richard Branson and will be changing its name to reflect it. The company announced Thursday it will be renamed Virgin Hyperloop One, and it followed a significant but undisclosed investment by the Virgin Group founder. Based in downtown Los Angeles, Hyperloop One comes from a concept released a few years ago by Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk. The transport system will carry passengers and cargo in pods through tubes at speeds of more than 250 miles per hour; and that could eventually go as high as 750 miles per hour. The company has been testing its pods in Nevada. Branson’s Virgin Galactic has been setting up office space in Southern California and will be directly competing with SpaceX in the space transport business.

Schneider Electric’s Mike Calise on what EVs and charging need to succeed

For Mike Calise, director of electric vehicles at Schneider Electric, mainstream adoption of plug-in electric vehicles boils down to widespread deployment of the charging infrastructure everywhere – homes, workplaces, retail stores, carsharing, car rental, and public sites. When asked about California’s recently enacted Electric Vehicle Charging Stations Open Access Act, Calise says he and his company support the open system for charging station access and payment. Calise says there are two larger issues to address than roaming – electric vehicle battery capacity and the number of charging stations out there.

The company would also like to see European Union countries adopt a consistent charge and plug standard, as it varies by which country you’re charging in now. Schneider Electric, a global company specializing in energy management, has been very involved in charging station installations across the US and Europe. Prominent recent installations have included Caesars Entertainment Corp. at its northern Nevada Casino properties, Red Cross Silicon Valley Chapter, and the Hacienda Business Park in Pleasanton, Calif.

Hacienda Business Park serves Oracle, Kaiser, and Schneider Electric and offers an interesting example of a new business model using an electric vehicle car-sharing service. This collaboration between Schneider Electric, Toyota, City Carshare, and other business park tenants, allows employees at this location to commute to work by train and bike and have a rental car available for errands, lunch, and other short trips, through City CarShare, with the EVlink charging infrastructure from Schneider Electric.

Fleets that are bringing in plug-in electric vehicles and on-site charging stations are discovering a few key benefits of making the investment – one of them being strengthening employee retention, says Calise. “Drivers understand the benefits of EVs, including the dollar-cost benefits – and it gets replicated (among their peers),” he said.

Workplace charging is definitely an amenity – an employee perk – and has been part of several companies strengthening their images in the community, he said. “Installing a $10,000 charger, and having HOV lanes in certain states, has employees bragging about it and the company they work for,” he said.

EVlink is a complete electric vehicle charging solution that delivers flexible, safe, reliable, and compatible charging of electric vehicles. Schneider Electric’s EVlink charging stations are used in public and private locations such as residential, retail stores, restaurants, resorts/hotels, hospitals, office buildings, universities, apartment complexes, and destination centers.

In late September, Schneider Electric announced its “Charge the World Change the World” initiative, a philanthropic program to give EV drivers an opportunity to have a meaningful impact on global sustainability when purchasing an EV charger. For every EVlink home charging station sold in North America, Schneider Electric will donate a solar powered, battery operated LED lamp to a family without access to electricity. Here’s a video to share with others – for every 100 views of the video, Schneider Electric will donate another light to a family.