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Electric bike charging stations installed on the West Coast Electric Highway

The West Coast Electric Highway in the US, which sees electric car charging stations dotting the route from the Canadian border in the north to the Mexican border in the south, is getting a new type of EV charging station as well. Now you’ll be able to charge up your electric bike along the way too, at least in the Oregon section.

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Electric vehicle (EV) charging standards and how they differ

Electric vehicle charging standards

As more and more consumers make the green decision to forego their combustion engines for electric vehicles, they may not be as in tune with charging standards. kW, voltage, and amps might sound like jargon compared to miles per gallon, but these are essential units to understand to get the most efficiency out of your shiny new EV.

Let the following serve as a guide, offering all you need to know about the various charging options out there and how they differ.

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EGEB: Shell to install 50,000 EV chargers in the UK by 2025

Shell EV chargers

In today’s Electrek Green Energy Brief (EGEB):

  • Shell’s ubitricity will install 50,000 on-street EV chargers in the UK.
  • Two New York State villages have launched an opt-out community choice solar program.
  • EV charging company Wallbox launches an “ultrafast public charger.”
  • UnderstandSolar is a free service that links you to top-rated solar installers in your region for personalized solar estimates. Tesla now offers price matching, so it’s important to shop for the best quotes. Click here to learn more and get your quotes. — *ad.
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Charging station straggler Indiana to spend $5.5M to catch up

Indiana has been slow to install electric car chargers, but the Hoosier State is now going to give eight electric utilities, including Duke Energy, NIPSCO, and AES Indiana, more than $5.5 million to set up 61 EV fast charging stations. The money will come from the Volkswagen settlement over its Clean Air Act violations.

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Check out these 3 fun US summer road-trip ideas (with charge points)

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Seven out of 10 Americans plan on taking road trips this summer. Electric vehicle drivers can, of course, use navigation systems, apps, and websites to find places to charge up, but utility company National Grid, which serves New York, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts, today launched EV Road Trip plans featuring fun destinations with charging stations in the three Northeastern states.

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Six US utilities form Electric Highway Coalition in Southeast, Midwest

EV charging ports

Six utilities today announced the formation of the Electric Highway Coalition. It’s a plan to ensure that electric vehicle drivers have access to a network of charging stations on major highway systems on the Atlantic coast, in the Midwest and South, and in the Gulf and Central Plains regions.

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Thomas Edison’s DC Charging Station and 1914 Detroit Electric Model 47 [Gallery]

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Detroit Electric Model 47 1914 Thomas Edison National Historical Park in Llewllyn Park 059

As part of the BMW of North America and the US National Parks Services event we wrote about earlier, we had a chance to take a look at Thomas Edison’s garage in Llewellyn Park and his Detroit Electric Model 47 that is on display there. This is the actual car the Thomas and his wife Mina used about one hundred years ago when electric vehicles were quite popular. Around the turn of the century only 22% of vehicles on the road were gasoline powered, 40% were powered by steam and a whopping 38% (= 33,842 vehicles) of all the vehicles on the road were EV’s. Imagine 38 percent of today’s vehicles being electric vehicles and what an impact that would make on emissions and noise pollution…


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‘Supercharger for all’: The first 150 kW fast-charging station comes online in Switzerland

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The first ‘GOFAST’ fast-charging station, which has been marketed as ‘Supercharger for all’ in reference to Tesla’s proprietary charging network, opened in Airolo, Switzerland this week. As previously reported, the Swiss company behind the project, GOtthard FASTcharge, is planning over 150 of these fast-chargers at 100 locations by 2018.
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White House unlocks $4.5 billion for electric vehicle infrastructure and announces new EV programs

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The Obama Administration announced today a new set of executive actions to directly accelerate electric vehicle adoption in the US through the expansion of charging infrastructure. The main announcement is the unlocking of up to $4.5 billion in loan guarantees for charging stations, but also an important collaboration between the Federal government and private companies, including some major electric utilities, automakers, charging station manufacturers and operators.
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Tesla quietly released a new cheaper and upgraded ‘Tesla Wall Connector’

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High Power Wall Connector

While the Tesla Model S grabbed much of the attention today with its redesign and a few new features, the automaker also quietly released a new ‘Tesla Wall Connector’ on its equipment website, which went virtually unnoticed.

The new charger is rated at up to 80 amps, just like the previous version, but it’s now significantly cheaper starting at $500 instead of $750, and it now features a “power sharing” function.
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Real World Opinion: Installing Level 2 chargers along roadways is a waste of time

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On a recent electric road trip to upstate New York, I realized that, with the cold weather, my snow tires and a car full of kids who like to be warm, I would need over 30 more miles of electricity than my batteries could hold to make it home. Hitting one of Tesla’s speedy Superchargers would require me to veer across the Hudson River twice and add over a half hour to my trip.

Along the fastest route, according to the helpful Plugshare App, there were a few Level 2 charging stations. I can get 30 miles per hour of charge from my default Tesla cable so I figured that I could get most of the extra miles I needed while we stopped for lunch. There was also a highly rated Level 2 charger within a mile of our destination we could use as a backup (it is good to have backups!). I figured we were all set…


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Tesla’s sales were flat in Norway in 2015, but December looks encouraging

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Tesla had an incredible year for sales and deliveries in 2015. The California-based automaker delivered 50,580 vehicles last year, which represents a 60% increase over the previous year. It’s hard to find any weaknesses with such an incredible sales performance. Yet the company increased its deliveries in almost all markets but Norway, where according to registration data, Tesla delivered the exact same number of Model S’s in 2014 and 2015: 4,039 units.
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Tesla Supercharger fire: Police can’t find a problem with the charger and “released” it, but it’s still offline

Model S burned down norway

Five days ago a Tesla Model S caught fire while plugged-in at a Supercharger in Gjerstad, Norway. When we first reported on the event last week, Tesla said that nobody was harmed and they are undergoing a full investigation.

The investigation is not over, but today we learn that local police released the scene of the Supercharger after not being able to find a problem with the fast-charging station.
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BMW and Nissan announce a partnership to deploy 120 fast-charging stations in the U.S.

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BMW and Nissan jointly announced today an important partnership to deploy DC fast charging stations at 120 locations across 19 states. The locations are equipped with Greenlots-networked charging stations, which include both CHAdeMO and CCS (Combo) connectors, suitable for all DC Fast charging-capable electric vehicles in the U.S.
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