The cloud: now for connecting electric cars

The car, in particular the electric car, is the latest device to get plugged in to the cloud. Coulomb Technologies, which makes networked electric-vehicle charging stations, plans to start selling cloud-based services to allow charge-station owners to manage charging and billing. The service also uses the cloud to connect an EV driver to the nearest charging station and deliver on-demand support and billing services.

The service can be used by the electric-vehicle-charging-station owner — such as a utility, a commercial building owner or an employer — to manage the rates and billing of the service, recoup the investment of getting the stations installed and track the usage of the stations. A charging station can cost anywhere from $2,500 to $6,000, depending on the features of the equipment, according to a recent report from the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI).

A corporate customer like Google, which installed 70 Coulomb EV charging stations at its headquarters, can monitor how many carbon emissions it’s saving with its installation, and it can also dig into the data to learn more about electric-vehicle charging habits (something Google has been particularly keen to learn about).

If electric vehicles ever become mainstream, utilities will have to manage the charging times and rates so that EVs don’t overload the grid in certain neighborhoods. The cloud-based Coulomb services will enable utilities — like current customers Austin Energy and Orlando Utilities Commission — to manage EV charging alongside their grids. According to the EPRI report, five utilities already have done a lot of research on how to provide management services of EVs: Southern California Edison, Detroit Edison, Progress Energy, Georgia Power and Sacramento Municipal Utilities District.

Internet companies and automakers are also looking to build cloud-based car-connected services. Microsoft and Toyota announced earlier this year that they’ll jointly invest $12 million in a bid to build a cloud-based platform that will connect cars, homes and electrical smart grids. Eventually, Toyota says, nonelectric cars could be connected into the service, too.

Using the cloud to connect cars and EVs makes sense, as there will continue to be more and more data associated with these essentially extra-large and expensive devices. GM’s electric car, the Volt, has 10 million lines of code and an IP address. Keeping EVs connected to the cloud via wireless networks also could be a valuable tool to fight range anxiety, or the perception that an EV’s battery has limited range and will run out of power, leaving the driver stranded.

Image courtesy of Nissan

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

View the original article here

This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.

A weapon for electric vehicle range anxiety: GPS

Vehicle navigation systems — using GPS and offering turn-by-turn driving directions — are almost as common as stereos in new cars. But what if these GPS services could also provide another important function for the emerging electric car industry: battling so-called range anxiety. On Monday, electric car charging company Coulomb Technologies announced it has partnered with navigation company TomTom to offer charging locator, reservation and information services for plug-in car drivers.

The idea behind the partnership is that the electric car owner can tap into the car’s navigation service to use GPS to show the driver the nearest charging station, enabling the driver to know how far the drive is until the car can charge up. The wireless network is thus used as a sort-of safety net, turning the car into a device on one edge of the network, connected to the nearest charger at another edge of the network.

Range anxiety is something the electric car industry is particularly worried about. Because electric vehicles rely on a battery that holds a certain amount of power, and charging the vehicle in standard outlets takes hours (anywhere from four to a dozen), there’s a dedicated range inherent in battery-powered vehicles. It’s the same kind of limit on the gas tank of a traditional car, but filling up a gas tank takes minutes, and gas stations are ubiquitous. For the series hybrid Volt, from GM, the electric range is 40 miles before a secondary engine kicks in after that to make its range “hundreds of miles,” and for the all-electric Nissan LEAF, the range is at most 100 miles (see our range comparison chart here).

A startup like Coulomb is smart to look to partner with navigation services companies. Electric car charging hardware will eventually be a commodity business, filled with large hardware players like GE, which will start selling its WattStation at 60 Lowe’s retailer locations later this year. Coulomb needs to grow its partnerships and network as large as possible in the early days of the EV market, before electric car charging becomes totally dominated by these types of large companies.

Having the ability to reserve charging stations on the fly, could be a useful service when/if a critical mass of electric cars ever hits the roads. Coulomb also offers this type of service via a mobile app for the iPhone and Android phones , which taps into the phone’s GPS to provide locator and reservation services.

Electric vehicle makers like Nissan and GM are using the GPS in the cell phone to offer similar range anxiety reducing tools. I tested the LEAF’s in-vehicle digital system, called EV-IT, that uses communication networks (via AT&T) and a dashboard to keep the driver constantly updated about the range of the vehicle and the closest charge point. The LEAF also has a dedicated iPhone application, and LEAF owners are able to remotely monitor the state of charge of the battery, and can pre-heat or pre-cool the car.

The Volt also has a smartphone app that will enable drivers to control certain vehicle functions through their smartphones, including scheduling battery charge times, viewing whether or not the vehicle is plugged in, checking voltage at a charger, and getting text notifications of interruption or completion of a battery charge. GM is relying on its connected OnStar system as the heart of the Volt’s digital services.

Images courtesy of Nissan, Coulomb Technologies and TomTom.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

View the original article here

This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.

Green Overdrive: The DIY electric Volvo (charged by Solyndra panels)

Welcome to the future of DIY clean power and electric vehicles. Solyndra engineer Michael Ahern (no, not that Michael Ahearn) electrified a Volvo 240 that he bought on Craigslist for $150 and has been charging it up with Solyndra tube-shaped solar panels that he and a friend installed on his roof in San Jose, Calif. His rooftop is one of the world’s first residential installations of Solyndra solar panels, as Solyndra has only been targeting selling to commercial and industrial building owners. That makes Ahern’s roof and car combo truly one of a kind, and perhaps a lil’ glimpse into the future of more sustainable energy and transportation.

Related content from GigaOM Pro (subscription req’d):

View the original article here

This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.