Fleet Briefing: Mass. EV Stations, Hertz, Endesa, Toyota, Chevy Volt

by | Feb 14, 2012

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Electric and gas company National Grid is installing more than 30 electric vehicle charging stations throughout Massachusetts under charging station manufacturer Coulomb Technologies’ “Charge America” program. Through the program, Coulomb is providing the charging stations at no cost to participating cities. National Grid is funding the installations and the hosting location partners will fund the cost of power to charge the vehicles.  National Grid expects to complete installation of the remaining stations by the end of this month.

In partnership with Plugless Power, the Hertz Corporation and Hertz Global EV are trialing the first wireless charging system for electric vehicles in the car rental industry. Plugless Power is a Level 2, or 240V at 30A, 3.3 kW rated power output, inductive charging system,with a transfer efficiency of 90 percent. It is supplied by Virginia based Evatran.

Endesa, Spain’s largest utility, has developed a prototype vehicle-to-grid (V2G) charger that enables electric vehicles to return stored power to the grid. The company projects that the technology could be a reality in 2020, and would allow electric vehicle users to sell surplus energy.

Toyota will stage the world debut of the FT-Bh concept, an ultra-lightweight, full hybrid city car study, designed to achieve low emissions within an economically viable production framework, at the Geneva Motor Show.

Despite having higher up front costs, the Chevrolet Volt extended-range plug-in is cheaper to own over the first five years of its life than the lower priced Nissan Leaf battery-electric vehicle, according to research by Kelley Blue Book, Autoblog Green reports.

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