Ecotality, a developer of electric transportation and storage technologies, has signed an agreement to provide Blink electric vehicle (EV) charging stations at select US stores of Best Buy, an electronics retailer, as part of its EV project.
Under the terms of the agreement, Ecotality will initially set up Blink EV charging stations at 12 select Best Buy stores in Tucson and Phoenix, Arizona; Los Angeles and San Diego, California; and Seattle, Washington by March 2011.
Ecotality will deploy the fully interactive Blink Network chargers, which provide users with charge status, statistics, history, and billing information through web portals and Smartphone application, based on its EV Micro-Climate process in the pilot regions.
Ecotality will gather data from the Blink EV charging stations at the 12 Best Buy stores to analyze real-world experiences of EV users to create EV infrastructure in a variety of regions and identify potential incentives for EV host sites.
Ecotality’s $230m EV project will oversee the installation of 15,000 commercial and residential charging stations in 16 cities and major metropolitan areas in six states and will provide an EV infrastructure to support the deployment of 8,300 EVs.
Ecotality North America president Don Karner said that the company is exited to announce its partnership with Best Buy to host Blink commercial EV charging stations as part of the EV project and believe these locations will be an ideal destination spot for consumers purchasing EVs.