Ecotality Auction Goes To Florida’s CarCharging Group

Tell me if this story sounds familiar; a government-backed green tech company goes bankrupt, heads to auction, and is sold for a tiny percentage of what is owed the government. EV charging company Ecotality was reportedly sold on Friday for $3.4 million, leaving the government on the hook for more than $96 million.

Ecotality’s buyer is the CarCharging Group, based in Miami Florida, which paid an undisclosed amount for the charging network operator, though word on the street is that the winning bid was just $3.4 million. The government loaned Ecotality $100 million, so you can say goodbye to the rest of that cash.

CarCharging Group gets access to Ecotality’s nearly 13,000 EV chargers, though there are plenty of technical and location issues that led to Ecotality’s bankruptcy in the first place left to resolve. CarCharging Group also grabbed another charging company, 350Green, giving the company cheap access to thousands of different charging stations all over the country. Whether or not they can actually make money on charging networks remains to be seen.

This is the latest money loser for the government’s green loan program, with other companies like Fisker and the Vehicle Production Group bringing in bids worth just a tiny bit of the money they owe taxpayers. It certainly adds fuel to the fire of debate over the government’s role in promoting green energy.

Source: Plug-in Cars

Automakers, Not Government, Should Provide EV Charging

With the recent announcement that public EV charging utility Ecotality was going into bankruptcy, a sober conversation is being had among the remaining providers of charging stations. Is there a sustainable business model for public charging points? The answer is no, not really, and if anybody should be providing customers charging points, it’s the automakers selling the EVs.

Common-sense studies show that EV owners do 90% of their charging either at work or home, leaving very few opportunities for privately-owned charging companies to make money. This is why Tesla is providing its Supercharger service for free, as it is seen as both a perk of ownership, and there probably wasn’t any way to Tesla to make enough to support each station. And where Tesla paid off its government loan, Ecotality looks like it could swallow most of the $99.8 million government grant it got in bankruptcy.

Most EV drivers have found that they can easily stay within the driving distance provided by a single charge, with studies confirming that even short-range EVs like the Nissan Leaf can handle 95% of trips. There’s simply no need to have EV chargers everywhere when most charging is done at work or home, and certainly not when it costs a premium price. Project Better Place, another bankrupt charging concept, learned that lesson the hard way as it was forced to charge a high-price for its complicated, membership-only charging infrastructure. But the slow adoption rate of the specialzed electric vehicles meant few buyers, and a billion dollars later Project Better Place is dead.

Still, there is need for some charging stations outside of the home garage or office parking lot. Tesla has the right idea, installing Superchargers along major driving routes like Interstate 95 on the East Coast, as well as up and down California. In fact, other automakers should lead by example and start installing charges sans government assistance, because our dysfunctional nation can’t even keep our national parks open. America the beautiful, am I right?

By providing EV charging stations at dealerships, which are often located near major shopping areas, it would give salesmen a chance to pitch the latest and greatest products to a captive audience. Pair charging points with coffee shops or delis, place stations near malls or stadiums, or even offer exclusive specials to drivers of high-end plug-ins. It would also give automakers a chance to sell “lifetime charging plans” that charge a flat monthly fee for use of well-placed fast-chargers at dealerships, malls, and elsewhere.

Dare I even suggest that automakers get together and contribute in equal parts to a universal charging network? Install them at key places, use the SAE-approved Combo charger, and almost overnight a national charging network would pop up. Keep these stations “advertising neutral”, but only put them along major interstates where drivers are likely to need to stop, rest, and recharge. There is no need to have EV chargers at every Starbucks or Trader Joes. Ecotality installed 13,000 chargers nationwide, but many of those were barely used at all; they put the cart before the horse, and so far the only bid for Ecotality is a paltry $3 million.

The idea that the government and local businesses should provide the infrastructure for a very minor part of the driving population is as dead as Ecotality and Project Better Place.

 Source: Green Car Reports

Study: EV Charging Stations Should Drop Membership Model

According to the research firm Frost & Sullivan, membership-based payment systems for electric car charging stations inhibit the adoption of electric vehicles due to inconvenience. But you can’t just give electricity away for free, so how do you fix this problem?

Under membership-based systems, prospective customers may be required to sign-up with companies like Ecotality in order to charge their electric vehicles. While membership models are sometimes offered with great financial benefits, not everyone is ready to tie themselves to any particular EV charging station company, especially with seemingly random saturation of charging stations. Locking users out of a charging station because they haven’t joined a membership program can be a real pain in the butt.

A possible solution is NFC (Near Field Communication). This enables customers to use their smartphones to authenticate their payment sources. The research firm Frost & Sullivan says that Near Field Communication is a “game changer” for plug-in vehicle adoption. But why not just add a debit or credit card swiper as well?

“The subscription method misses the opportunity to tap into current social trends and a connected community with its widespread adoption of smartphones and expectations for digital and real-time transactions,” observed Frost & Sullivan ICT Research Associate Shuba Ramkumar. These companies may be learning though, as Ecotality recently joined Chargepoint, allowing members of both companies to use either charging station. A step in the right direction, sure, but can membership models really work in the long run?

Source: Frost & Sullivan via Autoblog Green

ECOtality unveils Minit Charger for less-patient EV fleet operators

ECOtality may have doubled the number of electricity-powered vehicle miles from its chargers during the past six months, but that doesn't mean the San Francisco-based company is taking its foot of the figurative gas pedal.

ECOtality, whose Blink stations are used across the country by drivers of light-duty plug-ins like theNissan Leaf and Chevrolet Volt, has unveiled its Minit Charger 12 for fleet operators looking to boost efficiency for their electric-drive utility vehicle fleets.

The company's Minit Charger 12 offers fast-charging capabilities for multiple vehicles. ECOtality boasts that the Minit Charger 12 can "optimize battery life" and has the "highest sustained charge rate." The device can also handle batteries with voltage ranges from 24 to 80 volts.

The US Department of Energy (DOE) launched itsEV Project in 2009 by way of a $99.8 million grant allocated to ECOtality, which set out to distribute as many as 14,000 home-based charging stations. The DOE funded the EV Project with another $15 million the following year.

So far, the EV Project has collected plug-in driving data from more than 62 million miles of electric-powered driving. That number has doubled since last summer.

Read the ECOtality release below and check out the company's e-flyer on the Minit Charger 12 here.




Source: Autoblog Green

Sprint To Connect Ecotality’s Electric-Car Chargers Nationwide

Blink Residential EV Charger









Electric car charging company Ecotality announced today it has partnered with Sprint to its electric car charging stations. The partnership will make stations searchable on GPS and will enable billing services and the ability to track data on charging habits.

This is one of many examples in recent months of cellular carriers moving into the smart grid with increasing vigor. In the past few months, Sprint announced its 4G network will be used by Grid Net’s smart grid platform. Verizon showed off home energy and monitoring “smart home” services at CES and is rolling out a pilot this year. Last year, AT&T and Motorola both acquired home energy efficiency and automation companies; AT&T purchased Xanboo, and Motorola acquired up 4home.

Ecotality makes electric car chargers (pictured) called Blink and is currently deploying almost 15,000 chargers in 16 cities in a $230 million project, half of which will be fronted by the Department of Energy. Ecotality estimates the chargers will be enough to cover 8,300 electric vehicles. It will use Sprint’s wireless network to control machine-t0-machine provisioning, billing and service management on of its public and residential chargers.

And similar to what electric car makers like Nissan are offering, Ecotality’s Blink network will offer up a web portal to users who can look at data about their electric vehicles and charging habits. Users can also find the stations on their GPS.

The displays on the charging stations will apparently also be used to deliver advertising. The company’s release mentions that the Sprint network will power the delivery of “digital content for advertising and information.”

Earlier this week, global engineering firm ABB had invested $10 million in ECOtality.

Source: VentureBeat