City of San Jose gets electric vehicle charging stations

The first two ChargePoint America stations are now installed at the McEnery Convention Center Parking Center in San Jose, California. The announcement was made last week by Coulomb Technologies, when the company unveiled its first Networked Charging Station of electric vehicles in San Jose as part of its $37 million ChargePoint America program. The free stations will be for public and home charging to individuals and businesses.

“The installation of San Jose’s first ChargePoint America station is an important step forward in our efforts to make the Bay Area the Electric Vehicle Capital of America,” said Mayor Chuck Reed. “Our partnership with Coulomb Technologies is the perfect example of how Silicon Valley can lead the world in clean tech innovation and create new green jobs in our community.”

Coulomb’s ChargePoint America program will provide nearly 5,000 charging stations to program participants in nine regions in the United States: Austin, Texas, Detroit, Los Angeles, New York, Orlando, Sacramento, the San Jose/San Francisco Bay Area, Bellevue/Redmond, and Washington DC and is a strategic partnership between Coulomb and three leading automobile makers: Ford, Chevrolet and Smart USA.

Coulomb currently has the largest established base of networked charging stations worldwide with more than 700 units shipped to more than 130 customers. Installation of the ChargePoint charging stations is underway now in all nine regions.

“Coulomb’s first customer was the City of San Jose and we’re pleased to be back, both to welcome the electric vehicle transformation to Silicon Valley and also to bring jobs to install and maintain electric vehicle infrastructure,” said Richard Lowenthal, CEO of Coulomb Technologies. “Thanks to our $37 Million ChargePoint America program, San Jose will be one of the first cities in the nation to enable its residents to buy vehicles that don’t pollute and don’t depend on oil.”

ChargePoint America will offer both public and home charging stations to individuals and businesses. Businesses in and around the Bay Area interested in receiving free public charging stations should visit the ChargePoint America website and sign up by completing the application form. Individuals interested in purchasing an EV should sign up to receive more information about qualifying to receive a home charging station. Drivers can use the website to suggest public locations for charging stations.

The network is open to all drivers of plug-in vehicles and provides authentication, management and real-time control for the networked electric vehicle charging stations. Among the services on offer are SMS text or email notification of charging status, location of unoccupied charging stations via smart phones, an iPhone App, authenticated access to eliminate energy theft, authorized energizing for safety, among others.

The installation of the ChargePoint America stations is part of the City of San Jose’s Green Vision program, a 10-point environmental and economic investment program, and was funded with a $15m grant funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act through the Transportation Electrification Initiative of the Department of Energy.

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