If you’re walking down 9th Avenue anytime soon you may notice a strange looking post between the gray and steel colored line of meters.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg, US Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan and Coulomb Technologies CEO Richard Lowenthal announced the installation of the first Coulomb ChargePoint Networked Charging Station for electric vehicles in New York City today.
The ChargePoint station is located at an Edison Properties parking facility at 451 9th Ave. The station will be joined by more than 100 others citywide as part of the $37 million ChargePoint America program.
In total the program will provide 4,600 public and home ChargePoint Networked Charging Stations by October 2011.
The new stations will work with electric cars by Ford, Chevrolet and Smart USA, which will be introduced into the city in the coming months.
"Installing these stations will impact the City in several ways first, it will provide jobs to plan and install ChargePoint charging stations around the city; second, it will reduce carbon emission here, and third; it will give New Yorkers the opportunity to choose a vehicle that reduces our dependence on oil," said Lowenthal.
Mayor Bloomberg echoed Lowenthal’s remarks but made clear his intentions for the new charging station: "To meet the ambitious goals in PlaNYC, our long-term sustainability agenda, we will have to reduce transportation emissions by expanding mass transit and increasing the use of alternative-fuel and electric vehicles."
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The mayor plans to increase the numbers of hybrid vehicles in the city’s fleet, which already employs 6,000 vehicles.
The stations are opened to all owners of plug-in vehicles. The chargers provide authentication, management and real-time control for the networked electric vehicle charging stations.
These features include receiving an SMS text or email notification, an app for smart phones that gives you the locations of unoccupied charging stations.
ChargePoint America will offer both public and home charging stations to individuals and businesses. New York businesses interested in receiving free public charging stations should visit the ChargePoint America web site.
Individuals interested in purchasing an electric vehicle should sign up to receive more information about qualifying to receive a home charging station. Additionally, the ChargePoint America web site provides a way for drivers to suggest public locations for charging stations.
ChargePoint America is made possible by a $15 million grant funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act through the Transportation Electrification Initiative and a $3.4 million grant from the California Energy Commission.
