Are you thinking of purchasing an electric vehicle, but the concept of the inconvenience of charging it, or your lack of EV knowledge has kept you from making that decision? eVgo and ECOtality, Inc. are making it easier than ever to make the switch.
ECOtality, Inc. is continuing to build electrical vehicle (EV) charging stations, known as Blink, throughout the United States in major metropolitan areas in Washington, Oregon, California, Tennessee, Georgia, Illinois, Washington D.C., Pennsylvania and Texas. They are also the official project manager for The EV Project, the largest deployment of EVs and charging infrastructure in history.
With more than sixty project partners, ECOtality, Inc. collected and analyzed more than seventeen million miles of data to characterize vehicle use in diverse topographic and climatic conditions, evaluated the effectiveness of charge infrastructures and conducted trials of various revenue systems in both the commercial and public sectors. The ultimate goal of the EV Project was to take the lessons learned from the deployment of the first generation of EVs and the charging infrastructure supporting them to enable the streamlined deployment of the next 5,000,000 EVs. Discover details here.
eVgo also has convenient charging services throughout the U.S, giving people the opportunity, practicality and eco-consciousness of having a car that doesn’t run on gasoline. NRG Electric Vehicle Services, a Houston-based company developed the eVgo brand in the last few years and opened their first “electric vehicle charging ecosystem” station in Dallas in April 2011.
Arun Banskota, President of NRG’s eVgo, said, “We choose locations that are convenient, secure for consumers, and with a good retail engagement. We have signed agreements with the likes of Walgreens, Best Buy, and HEB/Central Market, the largest grocery chain in Texas.”
The media relations specialist for Walgreens, Vivika Vergara said, “Every day, we serve our customers’ health and daily living needs and now, we are expanding those services to help customers who embrace environmental sustainability and electric vehicles. Our neighborhood stores will be a convenient location for customers to recharge. As more people trend toward green and sustainable lifestyles, we want to expand our services to help customers who embrace environmental sustainability and electric vehicles.” They are committed to providing eVgo with eighteen locations in both DFW and Houston.
Other planned locations include Best Buy stores and Cracker Barrel restaurants. There are a variety of electric vehicles available today including the Nissan Leaf, Chevy Volt and Smart ED and each car has a unique battery so eVgo stations provide consumers with two charging options: level 2 (240-volt) and the 480-volt DC charger which can give a battery thirty miles of driving range in about ten minutes.
Arun Banskota participated in a panel discussion in Dallas about the United States’ dependence on foreign oil and proposed three significant ways that eVgo provides a powerful influence on helping to reduce our carbon footprint and energy reliance on other countries. Each day the U.S. spends over one billion dollars on oil imports, which contributes sixty percent of our trade deficit. eVgo relies one hundred percent on domestic electricity and production resources. Tailpipe emissions from gasoline-fueled cars accounts for thirty to fifty percent of emissions in large metropolitan areas like Houston and Dallas. Even an EV running on electricity produced by a coal power plant is cleaner than a gasoline-fueled car. The cost of operating an EV versus an internal combustion car is significantly less expensive. Electric cars have far fewer parts resulting in lower maintenance costs and the average fuel costs— considering 12,000 annual mileage and $4/gallon —can be about $2,400 for gasoline and about $300 for electricity on an annual basis.
eVgo’s charging stations provide a resource for EV owners to make a quick charge on their battery. For example, a lot of electric cars can run on a fully charged battery for about one hundred miles. If you have a long commute to work, but also have to do extra errands on your way home you can stop by an eVgo station for a few minutes to “refill” or recharge. The Nissan Leaf battery takes about thirty minutes to charge from zero to eighty percent on a DC charger. A quick ten minute charge will give them an extra thirty miles and because charging can take longer than pumping gas, the stations are located conveniently at places like Walgreens.
Since eVgo is a private business they have complete control with how they run their company and their goal is to make it as convenient for EV drivers as possible to spur the adoption of EVs. To continue making sure they are providing their customers with the best service, they will track information including how the stations are utilized and which stations are the most popular and use the research to make informed decisions about where to place future stations and intelligently grow their network. There are currently three charging plans available that allow customers to pay through a convenient three-year subscription service including a home plan, mobile plan and complete plan. The home plan includes a home charger (installed at no cost) for $49 a month. The mobile plan includes the home plan as well as the ability to use all eVgo stations and the electricity consumed for $79 a month. For $89 a month, the complete plan includes the home charger, access to all eVgo stations as well as payment for the electricity for car charging during off-peak hours on the home electric bill. Reliant, Green Mountain Energy and TXU are partners with eVgo so customers can select the complete plan and get a rebate on their electricity bill for the electricity consumed by their EV.
Next time you are shopping for cars consider an EV. Businesses like NRG Electric Vehicle Services’ eVgo and ECOtality, Inc’s Blink Stations are providing consumers with convenient charging options to make purchasing EVs feasible for large populations. They are paving a smart path to the future, a future where the reduction of vehicle emissions gives all life a healthier planet to live on.
Content taken from Amber’s articles on Examiner.com: eVgo and ECOtality.
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