electric vehicle charging

Allegra Stratton, British prime minister Boris Johnson’s climate spokesperson, says she won’t switch to an electric car yet because she has range anxiety. So she drives a “third-hand” diesel Volkswagen Golf instead.

After months of horse trading, a bipartisan group of US senators unveiled the legislative text of a 2,700-page, $1 trillion infrastructure bill last night. Here’s what’s in it for all things electric vehicle and clean energy – and what got the chop.

A battle is emerging in the world of transportation – the electric vehicle (EV) vs. the internal combustion engine (ICE). Soon you’ll have to choose sides, so it’s vital that you’re fully informed.

We’re here to help with that decision by offering context to consumers, whether you’ve never been near an EV or if you’re an expert. Below is breakdown of how far you can travel in each state on $100 in an EV vs. an ICE vehicle.

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.

Tamarind is a tropical fruit consumed worldwide, and its bulky shells take up a considerable amount of space in landfills. So a team of scientists found a way to convert the tamarind shells, which are rich in carbon, into carbon nanosheets, a key component of supercapacitors. As future scientific breakthroughs are made, supercapacitors could have the potential to play a larger role in energy storage, next-gen electric vehicles, and charging infrastructure.

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

• Charging an electric vehicle with rooftop solar in the US is cheaper than using grid power or public chargers.
• El Salvador commissions its very first wind farm.
• 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.

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.

Public fast-charging network EVgo has announced a new program called EVgo Reservations that gives drivers the freedom to claim their spot at a charger ahead of time. The initial rollout consists of 17 locations across California and the Seattle area in a pilot program that has already expanded.

Electrek spoke with Danielle J. Harris, director of mobility innovation at Elemental Excelerator, about innovative mobility industry solutions, how we can build robust electric infrastructure and encourage the mass adoption of EVs, and the importance of equity and access.

Elemental Excelerator is a Honolulu and East Palo Alto, California-based cleantech startup accelerator that finds and funds mobility startups to work with corporates, community-based organizations, and cities. It catalyzes partnerships to equitably and sustainably advance the transportation industry.

Elemental is currently accepting applications for Cohort 10. More information can be found here. 

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.

The Petaluma, California, City Council this week unanimously moved to ban new gas stations, and existing stations won’t be allowed to add new gas pumps – but they can add electric chargers. The council must approve the ban during a second reading in order to make it official.

In an effort to expedite the country’s transition toward electric vehicles, the South Korean government is lowering the prices of electric vehicles by 2025. This strategy includes implementing electric battery leases for Korean customers. This would cut their initial purchase costs by nearly half.

Revel has announced plans to build DC fast charging stations, known as Revel Superhubs. The move sees Revel beginning to expand its core business strategy beyond electric moped sharing.

Royal Dutch Shell said today that it is acquiring 100% of Ubitricity, the UK’s largest public electric vehicle charging network. The amount of the acquisition is undisclosed, and the deal is expected to close later in 2021.

But Shell’s true road map to net zero by 2050 won’t become more clear until next month’s strategy update.

The UK’s first electric vehicle service station, known as the Electric Forecourt®, has been opened by GRIDSERVE today near Braintree, Essex, in southeast England.

If you are an EV owner with a dryer in your garage, you’ve probably dreamed up the NeoCharge product already. And if you have a second EV, you’ve surely needed one rather than calling an electrician to run a second 240V line. What is this black magic device, exactly?

Skeptics like to point out that most EV drivers live in single-family homes that make charging easy. And they point to the current lack of charging stations at condos as an impenetrable obstacle to EV adoption. But this viewpoint reflects a lack of understanding of how daily EV charging works.

I recently chatted with Jason Appelbaum, chief executive of EverCharge — the biggest EV charging network you never heard of. He explained several hundred electric cars, all parked in the same condo garage, can easily get their daily dose of electricity.

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Governor Andrew Cuomo (D-NY) announced late yesterday that New York State will spend $701 million for EV infrastructure and other initiatives in the “EV Made Ready” program. That funds 53,773 Level 2 charging stations and 1,500 Direct Current Fast Charging (DCFC) stations by 2025.

The remaining $48.8 million, which comes from a 2017 settlement with Volkswagen (VOWG_p.DE) over its diesel emissions cheating scandal, will pay for charging stations and electric school and transit buses.

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EVPassport is an upcoming app that promises $39/mo unlimited charging on major EV charge networks. The included networks are Electrify America, EVgo, Chargepoint, Hubject and Greenlots, along with some smaller regional networks on the US West Coast. The app plans to launch in “a few weeks” but is taking wait list signups now.

The app will start with support for iPhone and DC fast charging in the US at first, with initial support for 2,500 DC chargers. It will expand to Android later this year, along with European support (including IONITY). If all goes well, it plans to add Level 2 AC charging support next year.

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Apple’s WWDC keynote included some good electric vehicle news today, when Apple announced that they would add EV charge routing into their next update to Apple Maps for iOS 14.

This allows drivers to navigate to a destination and automatically be told where to charge and for how long, simplifying the process of taking a road trip with an electric car.

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How would you like free power for your EV? That’s becoming the new alternative reality in Europe where grid electricity prices are going negative during the pandemic. The upside-down situation follows a recent period of oil prices falling below zero.

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