Archive for the ‘Infrastructure’ Category

Nissan has made a lot of news on the EV front lately: the company received a $1.6 billion loan from the Department of Energy to develop electric vehicles; it's partnering with Renault to build EV infrastructure at sites around the globe; and it's planning to drop its own EV into showrooms by 2012. Now, Nissan says it has developed a plug-free way to charge EV batteries via inductive technology (in much the same way that the 2010 Toyota Prius backpack we gave away charges cell phones). No gas lines, no plugs? Consider us amped. [GuardianUK via BusinessInsider]

Given the volume of disposable material it consumes on a daily basis, McDonald's may see like an unlikely place to set up a charging station for plug-in hybrid and electric vehicles. In fact, the idea of ANY fast food joint catering to EVs seems a little weird to us--much less one in Cary, North Carolina. Then again, it's a brave new internet-friendly world out there, chock-full of innovation, including Coulomb Technologies' increasingly popular ChargePoint charging stations. One question, though: how many Big Macs can anyone eat and still fit behind the wheel of a MINI E?

[AllCarsElectric]

We've talked a good bit about plug-in hybrids, fully electric vehicles, and the hurdles they'll have to jump before being fully embraced by consumers. Among the biggest of those obstacles is the necessary infrastructure for quickly charging the batteries in those vehicles--no matter where drivers find themselves.

The simplest approach to that problem--relatively speaking--is the one taken by Coulomb Technologies, which we highlighted just last week. Coulomb is currently manufacturing charging points for municipalities in North America and Europe--charging points with standard 110v and 220v capacity, which many automakers (e.g. Tesla) are...