The Level III charging stations will be capable of fully charging battery electric vehicles in less than one hour. The Level III fast charging stations will be co-developed, distributed, marketed and supported by both companies.
Designed in accordance with the TEPCO Level III specifications the charger will be qualified for use with several electric vehicle brands including the Nissan Leaf and the Mitsubishi i-Miev.
Managed by Coulomb’s open architecture ChargePoint Network, the new Level III networked fast charge stations will have all of the features of Coulomb’s Level I and II stations including: an integrated billing system, smart grid integration tools, remote station management, and ability to find available stations online.
Level III fast charging stations are expected to charge an EV in less than one hour. Level III stations rely on an off-board charger that converts AC to DC, using a 480 volt, three-phase electric service. The Level III ChargePoint Networked Charging Stations provide benefits including the ChargePoint Network application suite. The Level III charging stations for EV’s will be available for purchase in the third quarter of 2010.
Bret Aker, CEO of Aker Wade Power Technologies, said: ”Field studies in Tokyo have shown that deploying fast chargers increase vehicle usage by more than 50 percent. And this is with first generation battery electric vehicles that were yet to be optimized for fast charging.
“With coming improvements in Li-ion technology charge times will be reduced to as little as fifteen minutes. This is the point where consumers will abandon gasoline for electricity. This is the tipping point for electric vehicles.”
