The award is part of its $37m ChargePoint America program to provide nearly 5000 public and home charging stations in nine regions in the US.
The first California installation of the ChargePoint America program will be unveiled at the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) headquarters in Palo Alto, California. Coulomb will use the EPRI stations to collect research data on the requirements of workplace charging.
As a part of the ChargePoint America program, supported by a $15m grant funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act through the Transportation Electrification Initiative administered by the Department of Energy, Coulomb plans to install more than 1,000 new public charging stations by December 2010 and the remaining stations by October 2011.
The Chevrolet Volt, the Ford Transit Connect Electric and Ford Focus Electric and the smart fortwo electric drive will be introduced along with this program that will offer both home and public charging stations to individuals and businesses.
All drivers of plug-in vehicles can have access to Coulomb’s network of EV charging stations by using any standards-based RFID card or by making a call to each of the charging station, or signing up for a ChargePoint Network monthly access plan and obtaining a ChargePass smart card.
Charging stations owners can use ChargePoint Flex Billing system to set their own prices for charging at the stations, which can also be configured to provide free access to EV drivers.
