Finally, a Commercial Charger that Captures the Cord...Thanks GE!

Today, one of the oldest companies in the world jumped into one of the newest "industries" - General Electric formally announced a commercial EVSE...The WattStation.  GE partnered with Plug Smart (a.k.a. Juice Technologies) for the charger's "Smart Grid" intelligence. 

The product is beautiful...it looks like it was designed by some ultra-creative, swiss guy...and it was!  His name is Yves Behar and his firm has designed several innovative products (see video below).

Although the design is unique and looks very functional, the best part is that it captures and stores the cord in it's base.  No other EVSE on the market that I know of does this...but every EVSE manufacturer I've talked to recognizes cord management to be significant issue.

Why?

Level 2 EVSE Cords are...

• Long: up to 25 feet (7.62 m) long by NEC Standards.  Most I've seen are about 15-18ft.
• Heavy: the diameter of the cord is about 1/2 inches (12.7 mm) - you could tow a boat with these!
• Dirty: after dragging the cord around your car a few times, the cord will not be something you want to touch.

After reliability, the biggest challenge to using an automated reel system to store the cord is how to address a twisted cable.  If the user stores the J1772 connector into it's holster and tries to retract the cord, it would be nearly impossible for the mechanism to retract the twisted cord.

GE's approach to cord management is a vertical reel which pulls in the cord after use.  This seems like a good plan since the reel is visible and minor cord tangling issues can be fixed by the user or "host" of the charging station. 

Anyway, I'm surprised and impressed that one of the oldest electrical supply companies in the world came up with a design so functional and elegant.  I'm looking forward to getting my hands on a production version soon.

Charging for Charges, the Economics of Charging EVs

To charge EVs, or not to charge...that is the question for many governments and businesses today.

To answer that question requires a good understanding of the business case of charging cars.  As I see it, the Benefits and Cost of charging EVs comes down to these key variables...

Benefits

• Financial Benefits: Revenue from charging, Tax Credits, Rebates
• Marketing Benefits: New customers, Green marketing, Employee Satisfaction
• Environmental Benefits: GHG Reduction, Oil use reduction, Help with LEED Points

Cost

• Capital Expenses: Chargers, Installation
• O&M Expenses: Energy, Dedication of Parking Space, Maintenance, Insurance (Vandalism)

For this article, I'll focus on the 2nd most popular question customers ask me:

How much can you make from charging cars? 
This depends on a few key variables, like...

• How will you charge for X minutes of power?  
• How many charging stations do you plan to deploy?
• How often will people use them?
• What are the transaction rates associated with an eCommerce transaction? 
• How much does it cost for electricity?
• Are there any subscription charges per charging station?
• How fast do you plan to charge?  Level 1 or Level 2 - You can find out how many miles an EV can go on an hour of charge here.

Charge Calculator
To make calculating all these variables simple, I created the spreadsheet below.  You can press the "Click to Edit" and enter your own assumptions in the YELLOW CELLS.  As you will soon see, you can earn some good income from charging vehicles, once the EV market matures and you have a good location.

BTW, the number one question I'm asked is: How much will it cost?...which I'll cover in future articles.