In August of 2009 ECOtality announced The EV project. ECOtality is partnering with Nissan to deploy 12,500 Level 2 charging stations, and 250 Level 3 stations in the five rollout states of Arizona, California, Oregon, Tennessee, and Washington. Level 2 charging stations are those installed in home garages and most public/commercial locations and will use 220V. These systems will require about 8 hours to charge a fully depleted battery. Level 3 charging stations will use 440V, three-phase power and will provide approximately an 80% charge in less than 30 minutes.
What you may not have known is that 5,700 early LEAF owners have the opportunity to get a free home charger as part of the agreement that provided ECOtality over $99 million from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). In return for the free charger, you provide your charging data for a period up to 36 months so that it can be analyzed and compared to others in the project.
In addition, Coulomb Technologies has recently announced ChargePoint America, which has received a $15 million DOE grant for the project. Coulomb has partnered with Ford, Chevrolet, and smart USA. ChargePoint America will ultimately provide nearly 5,000 charging stations in nine regions in the United States. These regions include Austin, Detroit, Los Angeles, New York, Orlando, Sacramento, San Jose/San Francisco Bay Area, Redmond, WA and Washington, DC. While Nissan is not a partner, LEAF owners will benefit as all Level 2 chargers must now meet the SAE J1772 connector standard. At present, there is no connector standard for the Level 3 charger. While Coulomb claims to be “the leader in electric vehicle charging station infrastructure”, a quick look at their “Find Stations” map reveals only one Level 2 charging station, and that can be found at corporate headquarters in Campbell, CA. All the rest are currently level 1 chargers. Level 1 chargers are powered by 110V AC (home voltage), and require as much as 16 hours to charge a fully depleted LEAF battery.
If you are not fortunate enough to become a participant in The EV Project, you should know that Uncle Sam will still help you out. A tax credit of 50% can be applied for against the purchase of a home electric vehicle charging station. This credit is up to $2,000. Currently quoted prices are around $2,200 installed, so you should be able to get half of that back, and you won’t have to provide your charge data to anyone.