Electric vehicle charging stations with WiFi support could become commonplace. Texas Instruments, a.k.a. TI, has just published an EVSE (a.k.a. electric vehicle service equipment) reference design that includes WiFi support and an ARM-based processor. I believe many companies use these published reference designs as the starting point for products, sometimes…
This week Tesla Motors unveiled a larger battery pack for the Tesla Model S. With a 100 kiloWatt-hour battery pack they’re now up to 315 miles EPA range, and it also let Tesla juice up the Ludicrous mode for an even faster 0-60 miles/hr time and claim to be selling…
A battle is being fought in California over whether electric utility companies can own/deploy electric vehicle charging infrastructure. In the case of PG&E’s proposal, it has drawn huge amount of criticism and in late 2015 the CPUC forced PG&E to limit their plan while the Commission weighed whether PG&E should be allowed…
We don’t think of the Midwest as a hotbed of electric vehicle activity, do we? In actuality, the Kansas City area has had electric vehicle owners for 20 years or more. Over the last couple years, the local electrical utility (Kansas City Power and Light) has built up an impressive…
Electric car charging resources are limited, meaning we all must do our best to share them effectively. It’s bad enough that gasoline car owners routinely block charging stations either from confusion/ignorance or from politically motivated spite. In some cases electric car owners block charging stations, maybe thinking they have a…
In late March, CharIN e.V. made the briefest of announcements that looks to make a huge impact on the electric car charging scene: “CharIN e. V. is happy to announce that Tesla Motors Inc. has been granted core membership in the association on 24th of February 2016.” This is important…
I’m working on a book meant to teach “Range Confidence” as a way to avoid letting Range Anxiety keep us from driving electric cars. The key knowing the capabilities of your car, the local charging network, the ins-and-outs of selecting between Level 2 and Fast charging, and having a car with fast charging.…
Yesterday, a post by John Voelcker of Green Car Reports noted that General Motors has no intention to invest in building fast charging infrastructure. He had been able to attend a meeting between the press and GM at CES last week. Several GM executives agreed, no support by GM to…
Earlier today Volkswagen unveiled the BUDD-e, a reboot of the venerable VW Bus that had been passed through an uglifier and given an ultra-modern electric drive train and infotainment wizardry. The most curious part of the car is its recharge time, which Volkswagen described as allowing a “80% recharge in…
Tesla Motors has had a spot of bad news – another Model S has caught on fire, this time not from road debris but while plugged into a Supercharger station. This happened in Norway, according to a news post on fvn.co, for a brand new car. The owner had plugged in,…
Nissan and BMW announced today a welcome deal to build dual-protocol fast charging at 120 locations across 19 states. This is another sign of cooperation between two main factions of the competition to establish the dominant fast charging protocol. For the last five years, a big question dogging the electric vehicle…
With the recent embrace of DC Fast Charging, as well as Home Charging solutions, ChargePoint has positioned itself as a full service electric car charging station network. Today, ChargePoint held a Webinar targeted at “property owners” who would be a charging station host site. The goal of course is to persuade…
Today, ChargePoint announced an expansion of its ChargePoint Places program that’s being used to promote attractive EV-Friendly destinations. The program is cool because EV drivers are presented with reassurance they’ll be able to travel with their electric car, and charge at the destination. Showcasing destinations that do offer electric…
For years we’ve had a little semantic squabble in the plug-in electric car field. General Motors insists on calling the Chevy Volt a range extended electric vehicle, while in truth it is a plug-in hybrid. But, point out that obvious truth in certain crowds is sure to cause outrage because…
Audi seems to have a clue — for long range electric cars to succeed, there must be a widespread fast charging network offering charging rates well above 100 kiloWatts. Tesla Motors has demonstrated with its Supercharger network that the combination of 70 kiloWatt-hours or more energy, and 120 kiloWatt charging,…
