By Alleyn Harned | January 28, 2010 at 06:40 PM EST
The consensus of many here is that “dumb charging” will be a liability to electric cars and to the electricity grid.
Great presentation from eTec on their massive deployment project. deploying multiple models of electric vehicle infrastructure in five states throughout the country, this program is going to impact 10,000 vehicles, and thousands of level 2 charging stations. Smart grid and demand response will be built in. This is one to follow.
http://www.etecevs.com/PHEV-activities/the-ev-project.php
Coulomb and Better Place presented their various business strategies, and provided an overview of faster, stronger, and utility / government integrated charging plans. Both companies were discussing recent orders on the tens of thousands for equipment. One interesting note about charging infrastructure, if the PVC pipe to house the electric cable is installed when parking spot concrete is poured, it potentially saves 2/3rds of the cost of installing a charging station later. Level 3 charging will come sooner than expected.