UK project builds electric-car charging into a half-mile of lampposts

London lampposts equipped for electric-car chargingThe great thing about electric-car charging is that it can take advantage of existing grid infrastructure. A new project in the United Kingdom demonstrates the benefits of that. Siemens built charging stations into 24 lampposts on roughly a half-mile of Sutherland Avenue in London. The section of street was rechristened, appropriately enough...

World-first in-road charging test for trucks successful, highway speeds next

Smartroad GotlandInitial tests of in-road charging for electric trucks on a stretch of Swedish road have been successful, according to project managers. The scope of testing will now increase, encompassing more vehicles, additional stretches of road, and higher speeds. The project, dubbed "Smartroad Gotland" got underway in November 2019 with the installation of...

Electrify America hits 100 charging stations in California

Electrify America DC fast chargers at San Francisco Premium Outlets, Livermore, CaliforniaElectrify America has reached a significant milestone for electric-car charging in California, the biggest market for EVs in the United States. About 15 months after opening its first California charging station, the network has opened its 100th charging station in the state. The 100 stations have a total of 400 individual plugs, and span the...

GM commits to giving its own employees more workplace charging

2020 Chevrolet Bolt EV charging at Electrify America site, Kelso, WashingtonGeneral Motors announced Tuesday that it’s launching a major initiative to provide workplace charging for its own employees. Through the effort, it will install 3,500 charging connectors across facilities in the U.S. and Canada—tripling the number of connectors currently available from the company. Citing “the internal popularity...

VW backs expansion of “plug and play” battery-buffered fast chargers

Volkswagen ID Buzz concept, 2017 Detroit auto showThe installation costs and large footprint of current DC fast-charging stations has slowed their deployment, but Volkswagen has a plan to speed things up. The German automaker has partnered with energy-infrastructure company E.ON to develop a more streamlined fast-charging setup. What Volkswagen describes as a "plug and play" setup will allow...

California bill aims to cut permit time for EV charging stations

Nissan Leaf charging at EVgo fast charger in Baker, CaliforniaCalifornia has by far the most electric cars of any state, but the permitting process for new charging stations can take substantially longer than elsewhere. A new bill introduced in the California State Assembly aims to address that. The bill would streamline the permitting process for charging stations by amending Section 65850.75 of...

Electrify America is gaining ground on Tesla Supercharging

E-Tron at Electrify America station, Marietta GAIf you’re just learning the ways of electric-car ownership, the more charging-station locations, the better. And Electrify America appears on its way to catch up with Tesla’s Supercharger network in that metric. Electrify America announced Monday that it will be opening its 400th charging station location this week. All of its...

Electrify America charging is coming to some Bank of America locations

Electrify Canada fast chargingUp until now, most of the high-power DC fast chargers that Electrify America has installed for electric-car drivers have been at Walmart stores and big shopping centers. But soon the charging network will look to a new venue: the bank. By the end of 2020, Electrify America will make available about 40 DC fast-charging stations (locations), with a...

Downtown Detroit, a charging desert, finally gets DC fast chargers

General Motors Renaissance Center in Detroit, MichiganThe home base for the U.S. auto industry has long been downtown Detroit. And as much as that industry has wanted to talk the talk about electrification the past several year, it hasn’t walked the walk in its home turf. Detroit almost made it to the end of the decade without a single DC fast charger. Until recently—like just three...

Xpeng and Nio team up for charging, amid China EV sales slump

2018 Xpeng G3Before Tesla actually entered China, the electric automaker Nio had built a reputation as the Tesla of China, for good reason: It built an extensive network of DC fast chargers and energy services—to the degree that, just as with Tesla and its Supercharger network, the company seemed to be building something that other automakers might be...

Fastest charging for Porsche Taycan will be exclusive to CCS standard

2020 Porsche TaycanPorsche last month rolled out the Taycan electric car in Japan for the first time, with a charging demonstration in cooperation with the charging-hardware provider ABB. The demonstration charger featured with the Taycan, which will have Japan’s ubiquitous CHAdeMO charge port when it’s for sale in the country, was said to be capable of...

Hitachi betting on 800V to go mass-market with high-output inverter

Porsche Taycan production in Zuffenhausen, GermanyWhen Porsche developed its Taycan electric car on 800-volt systems, it had to go the expensive route—designing from scratch many components that EV makers might otherwise secure from suppliers. That’s because while a robust supply network exists by now for 400-volt systems, the idea that 800V might be the future is just starting to be...

Volvo is paying plug-in hybrid drivers for all the electricity they use

2018 Volvo XC60 T8 R-Design with Polestar optimizationAs Volvo sees it, plug-in hybrids are the path toward achieving one of its high-aiming carbon-reduction goals—making fully electric cars half of its sales by 2025. To do so, the automaker plans to nudge its portion of PHEVs in the U.S. over the next 16 months, to 20 percent, up from about 4 percent today. But it also knows that plug-in...

Campaign pokes fun at sorry state of public charging signage

Bee Charging campaign for more EV charging signageAs electric-car technology matures, and the people driving EVs aren’t all patient, resourceful early-adopter types, the issues that sour people on the electric experience are evolving, too. Today the deal-breaker is increasingly likely to be the lack of charging infrastructure rather than rated range—and the idea of range anxiety is...

Electrify Canada maps out more than 20 places to charge at 350 kw

Electrify Canada fast chargingElectrify America is well-established by now—as it needs to be, as part of Volkswagen’s diesel settlement. Meanwhile, its equivalent organization to the north, Electrify Canada, is a voluntary effort is just getting started—with some very fast 350-kw chargers. Electrify Canada announced Wednesday that it would be installing more...