Easier Access to Charging Stations for Electric Cars

Gas prices are edging toward $4 per gallon in the Bay Area, as they did in summer 2008. The repeated rise of gas prices can make electric vehicles more appealing to motorists, especially if they know access to charging stations will become easier.

A software release scheduled for late March will let electric car drivers reserve a charging station using mobile-computing devices such as iPhones, Android phones and Blackberries. With charging stations few and far between, unlike ubiquitous gas stations, the program could prove to give drivers peace of mind while on longer journeys.

The software belongs to Coulomb Technologies, an electric vehicle company based in Campbell and founded by Richard Lowenthal, a former Cupertino mayor.

Coulomb Technologies has installed charging stations in 14 countries. As for the Bay Area, there are Coulomb charging stations in Alameda, Campbell, Los Gatos, Palo Alto, Pleasanton Hill, San Francisco, San Jose, Santa Clara, Santa Rosa and Walnut Creek. The charging stations may be public or privately owned.

In California, only private companies that plan to run a charging station for profit must pay for the device. Individual owners of electric vehicles can get a charging station paid by the federal government and installed in their home garage by the state. City-owned charging stations are free gifts, too.

Cupertino is expected to have a Coulomb charging station soon, but the installation time hasn't been set yet.

Lowenthal says Coulomb Technologies was founded in Cupertino.

Twice a Cupertino mayor, Lowenthal first used a city-owned electric vehicle in 1999, and that ignited his interest in the electronic vehicle industry. After years of contemplating, he founded Coulomb technologies in September 2007, three months before he completed his second term with Cupertino City Council.

Lowenthal says the overlap was intended for him to waste no time in the transition of his career.

Coulomb Technologies moved to Campbell in 2008 for significantly lower rent, $1 per-square-foot compared with the $4-per-square-foot rate in Cupertino, according to Lowenthal.

Meanwhile, the company has grown from a two-member staff to more than 100 employees. It also saw a 400 percent growth in revenue from $1 million in 2009 to $5 million in 2010.

Lowenthal says a third of the business is about free charging stations for users, but the company gets addtional money from a federal grant.

While receiving strong government support, Lowenthal recognizes the obstacles that stand in the way of the popularization of electric vehicles, namely high prices and long charging time.

Two options of electric vehicles, the Chevrolet Volt and Nissan Leaf, come with price tags of more than $40,000 and $30,000, respectively. That makes them still considerably more expensive than average cars, even after a $7,500 federal rebate.

In the meantime, the Volt is not a purely electric car, because it will automatically become a hybrid running on gas when its battery depletes on the road, and Leaf needs to be recharged after about 100 miles.

It takes 30 minutes for an 80 percent charge in a Leaf, which is the quickest charge in the United States right now.

Lowenthal says there will be a battery-swapping method in Israel this year that will make battery charging about as quick as gas pumping, but it won't be available in America.

Even so, Lowenthal sees solutions to the charging time problem. He says car makers can make bigger batteries for all-battery cars, using next year's Tesla sedan, which can run more than 200 miles on a single charge, as an example. He also says there will be more small-battery cars that come with a hybrid function like Volt.

"When more and more electric vehicles come out, prices will go down, like what's going on with smart phones,"says Lowenthal. "Then electric vehicles will become more affordable."

Lowenthal couldn't wait until then himself. He owns a Volt and a BMW mini E. He says he needs the Volt for road trips (to have its hybrid function as the last resort, just in case), but he usually drives his mini E to work and uses a Coulomb battery-charging station in front of his office.

Given his short commute between Cupertino and Campbell, Lowenthal says it consumes little electricity from the mini E battery on his way to work and takes less than an hour to get the battery back to full.

The charging station in front of the Coulomb Technologies building is not the only one in the complex of office buildings. There is another one that belongs to Netflix for its employees to use for free.

Lowenthal says there will be more than 1 million electric vehicles worldwide by 2015.

"Each of the one million cars will need at least two charging stations, one at home and the other at a location on the owner's routine route," says Lowenthal. "So it's time for us to expand."

Lowenthal says he changed his job title from CEO into chief technology officer of Coulomb Technologies in February, just for the sake of future expansion. With new CEO Pat Romano taking care of the company's daily operations, Lowenthal says he can concentrate on product development.

"I'll invent new products,"says Lowenthal. "I'll add features to our charging stations, making charging more convenient to all electric vehicle owners."