Many new EV owners (and solar customers) need to upgrade their electrical panel. That panel, which is so critical to your home’s energy, uses antiquated technology. It’s mostly a big dumb circuit breaker. Well, that was until Arch Rao came along to turn that panel into an intelligent, app-controlled energy gateway.
The Shanghai Municipal Government yesterday announced its smart-city action plan. Activities include adding 100,000 charging ports, so-called Internet-of-Vehicle roadways, and 34,500 5G base stations. Those charging ports double as interactive devices that collect a lot of data, including “user portraits.”
The world’s electric-car infrastructure is growing by leaps and bounds. But there are still gaps – places without chargers that could be served if EV charging was portable, flexible, and put on wheels. Colorado-based Lightning Systems today became the latest to introduce a mobile DC fast charger for electric vehicles. But are these solutions more than a gimmick?
Electrify America and Hyundai-Kia have a two-fold problem with their fees for fast-charging. First, where it is allowable, the fees are based on time and charged by the minute. The second part of the problem is that those fees are tiered, based on the maximum possible kW charging rate – not the rate that your car actually charges. Today, Electrify America announced a temporary fix for the Kia Niro EV by ditching the tiers and charging a flat rate of $0.35 per minute.
Canada’s Ontario province makes for a fascinating case study of EV adoption. On one hand, Ontario’s center-right government in July 2018 killed an EV rebate of up to $14,000 — and electric-car sales plummeted by 50%. The situation went postal in November 2018 when 12 EV charging stations were ripped out from a Toronto train station. Critics said the chargers were expensive and had low utilization. And then, last Thursday, EV-driving parliament members spoke up loud and clear in a debate over ICE-ing.
Curse Electrify America (EA) if you want. Giovanni Palazzo, the CEO of the nationwide charging network, invites criticism if you have a terrible experience at an EA location. We spent a full hour last week with Palazzo, and COO Brendan Jones, discussing the challenges of creating an open nationwide network of ultra-fast EV chargers. Electrify America has made a lot of progress, but its leaders admit it has a long way to go to serve the next generation of EV drivers.
Total, the major French multinational oil and gas company, announced today a $300 million investment to install about 200 MW of solar capacity at 5,000 gas stations around the world. The investment is being presented as a way for Total’s operations to reduce its carbon footprint, but what if its the first step to convert the gas stations into electric vehicle charging stations?
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