New York Opens its First Electric Vehicle Charging Station

Written by geri Friday, 16 July 2010

Mayor Bloomberg opened the city’s first electric-vehicle charging station at a commercial parking lot, adding some spark to a nationwide push to boost infrastructure for electric cars.

Forty chargers will be installed for New York City-owned electric cars and hybrid fleets, alone. Chargers will also be installed in public parking lots so cars can be recharged while people work and in private garages, such as those under apartment buildings -- more than 100 stations throughout the NYC metropolitan area by 2011.

With matching grants from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, Coulomb Technologies will provide nearly 5,000 of its ChargePoint charging stations in nine US cities: Austin, Texas, Detroit, Los Angeles, New York, Orlando, Fla., Sacramento, California, the San Jose/San Francisco Bay Area, Bellevue/Redmond, Wash., and Washington DC. The program, called ChargePoint America, is a strategic partnership between Coulomb and three leading automobile makers: Ford, Chevrolet and Smart USA.

ChargePoint Network is open to all drivers of plug-in vehicles and provides:

* Charging status by SMS text or email notification
* Location of unoccupied charging stations via smart phones
* A ChargePoint iPhone and Blackberry App
* Authenticated access to eliminate energy theft and optimize safety

The NYC charging station was unveiled yesterday at an Edison Properties parking facility at 451 9th Avenue in Manhattan.

(READ more of the story in CS Monitor)