Electric Vehicles | Coulomb Tech Blog

Coulomb EMEA Partner 365 Energy Announces Roaming for EV Users

January 29th, 2010

365 Energy enables networked roaming for EV users in Europe

Amsterdam and Bochum to offer cross-border billing and roaming

Coulomb EMEA partner 365 Energy today announced that the of Amsterdam and Bochum have started operations of a novel, cross-country billing and roaming system. The platform allows for electric vehicles (EVs) to be charged in various European cities by using a single customer ID card issued by the municipalities. Due to the networked billing and roaming, EV users will not only be able to access ChargePoint™ Networked Charging Stations in Europe with the same ID, they will also receive an integrated invoice at the end of each billing period. There will be no extra charge for roaming, since these cities open their ChargePoint Networked Charging Stations for each other. In the near future, this will enable EV drivers to buy the electricity from their preferred provider.

The city of Amsterdam and the city of Bochum‘s public utility company Stadtwerke Bochum GmbH have been the first to install ChargePoint charging stations in the Netherlands and Germany, respectively, and are again front-runners to offer EV users this unique service. Other European cities, such as London and Lisbon and Milan are expected to follow.

Charging in Amsterdam

“We are very pleased about the progress of establishing a networked, cross-border charging infrastructure for EVs in Europe,” said Marijke Vos of the City of Amsterdam. “With Amsterdam and Bochum spearheading the introduction of EV infrastructure in the Netherlands and Germany, we expect other municipalities to join the network.”

ChargePoint Networked Charging Stations are developed by Coulomb Technologies and exclusively marketed in Europe, the Middle East and Africa by 365 Energy. Coulomb’s advanced software technology allows utilities and governments to scale their networks to accommodate large numbers of networked charging stations. The foundation is the development of the ChargePoint™ Network powered by Coulomb’s advanced software technology. The ChargePoint Network is open to all drivers of electric vehicles and provides authentication, management, and real-time control through multiple web-based portals for hosts, fleet managers, drivers, and utilities.

Would you like to learn more about EV in Europe? Check out this fantastic video.

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Open Standards for Electric Vehicles

October 27th, 2009

Did you know that throughout the 1800s, there was no centralized system of paper money in the United States? Before the Federal Reserve Bank was created by the U.S. government in 1913, each bank issued its own custom money, and by the end of the 19^th century, there were more than *five thousand* different kinds of bank notes floating around this country. There was no centralization. There was no standardization. It was chaos.

Fortunately, we’ve learned a valuable lesson about using industry standards.

Let me ask you a question: when you shop for a new DVD player, do you need to spend any time trying to figure out which brand of discs your new player is compatible? Or does the fact that all consumer electronics companies adhere to an industry standard when it comes to the physical dimensions of DVDs allow you the freedom to consider ALL different brands, features and models of DVD players? Of course it does.

This is why it’s critical – as we begin to consider the paradigm shift toward battery-powered electric vehicles (BEVs) – we must adopt an open standard when it comes to recharging these cars; this is the quickest way to ensure proliferation of these cars among the American driver. The idea that you might be forced to adapt to one specific kind of recharging technology could potentially cripple the widespread adoption of these zero-emission vehicles.

A forum of panelists convened in Palo Alto on a recent evening to discuss this topic – the title of the event was: “EVs: Transformational Change or Niche Trend?” A journalist in the audience focused in on this thread, which was picked up by Reuters.

EV Charging Stations

It’s going to take quite a few years before ALL Americans fully embrace the idea of ‘driving clean’ – we must do nothing to retard this effort, and everything to help spur it along. Which is to say, the driver must feel completely comfortable with the ease of recharging their vehicle. Having a completely open charging system, and industry standards when it comes to charging protocols is the surest way to ensuring success.

Tags: EV Charging Stations, SAE J1772
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