Charge It!
If electric cars take off, they will need a network of charging stations. But how will people pay?
By MIKE RAMSEY
With the expected proliferation of plug-in electric cars, the business of recharging them may come to look less like the filling-station model of paying at the pump and more like the way consumers pay for cellphone service.Journal Report
Read the complete Tomorrow's Transport report .Electronic Vehicle Charging Stations
Existing public charging stations are largely free, self-service kiosks funded by local and state governments and businesses to entice more people to drive electric vehicles. But if plug-in vehicles become common, governments and businesses won't want to foot the ever-growing power bill.
Several companies are developing networks of privately owned charging stations, along with software and agreements to make the charging of vehicles seamless for drivers at stations in different locations and with different owners.
Subscription's Benefits
These companies are trying a variety of payment models, including traditional pay-at-point-of-service. But experts say subscription plans offering flat monthly rates, like those of cellphone providers, are the model that is likely to prevail.For the developers, advantages of a subscription model include locking in customers, which can help the networks recoup their infrastructure costs faster. For drivers, subscriptions can make it easier to find and schedule charging appointments at stations away from home—an important feature since charging can take hours. For the networks and power generators, meanwhile, usage data gleaned from the subscriber base can make it easier to predict when and where the most electricity will be needed during peak periods.
One network that uses subscriptions, San Diego-based 350Green LLC, projects it will have 200,000 subscribers in 30 markets across the U.S. by 2015, a spokesman says. Currently, nearly 290 stations are planned or under construction in San Francisco and Chicago, where the company plans to offer unlimited charging for $50 to $70 a month. By the summer of 2012, San Francisco is to get six fast-charging stations, which are expensive to build but can give a Nissan Leaf nearly a full charge in 30 minutes. The 280 stations the company expects to have in Chicago by year-end will be a mix of fast and 240-volt chargers. The latter take about eight hours to fully charge a Leaf.
Shop While You Charge
These self-service stations will have as many as four charging ports, and some will include a 24-hour help line. They will be located in high-traffic areas such as malls—where customers can shop as their recharge—and tollway fueling centers.The governments and businesses that have installed charging stations up to now have done so mostly for marketing reasons or as employee perks, says Tim Mason, president of 350Green. His company, by helping expand the industry with a subscription-based network, he says, is providing public charging while relieving the owners of station sites—whether local governments or shopping malls—of financial burdens and obligations. "We own and operate the infrastructure," Mr. Mason says, "and we've found overall that host locations really appreciate that."
An eVgo charging station in the Houston area Plug-in drivers in the Houston and Dallas-Fort Worth areas can choose among three subscription plans from EV Services, a division of Princeton, N.J.-based NRG Energy Inc. The company has plans for more than 100 eVgo branded charging stations in and around the two Texas cities, where NRG is also a power provider. The company plans to have 60 stations installed by this summer and 120 by the end of next year.
The subscriptions offer different rates and advantages depending on how much and where drivers plan to charge their vehicles. Each three-year plan comes with free home installation of a 240-volt charging dock that can recharge the large batteries in electric vehicles in about half the time of a standard outlet. For $89 a month, the cost of all charging is included, whether at home or at an eVgo station. For $79, a driver receives unlimited charges at eVgo stations but pays for home charging on his or her electricity bill. For $49 a month, customers will pay for each charge separately but get access to the full network of stations. Charges won't be allowed without subscriptions.
NRG says it has plans to expand the eVgo network well beyond Texas. For now, its Houston and Dallas-Fort Worth subscribers will receive a key chain fob that allows them to use the eVgo stations in their specific city. In a few months, the company says, the same fob will work in Houston or Dallas.
Arun Banskota, president of EV Services, says the company also is trying to figure out how its subscribers could eventually use a network of 100 charging locations being installed by Austin Energy, a utility company in the Texas capital, which isn't part of the eVgo territory right now. Austin Energy is offering an introductory rate of $25 for six months of unlimited charging at its public charging stations. Users will get a swipe card that identifies them.
One of the oldest and broadest networks of charging stations, ChargePoint, from Coulomb Technologies Inc. in Campbell, Calif., lets consumers charge their cars at 750 locations around the country without subscriptions. ChargePoint stations are mostly built by Coulomb but are owned and operated by businesses or local governments.
Although there are no subscriptions, ChargePoint customers who register can plug into the entire network of stations using an online system that lets them schedule charging appointments and pay with a ChargePoint payment card. Registered members set up online accounts that are used to preload the payment cards with money and to locate and make appointments at the stations. Each station charges its own rates, and some have separate credit-card-swiping systems.
Richard Lowenthal, Coulomb's founder and chief technical officer, says there will always be a need for charging docks that take a credit card on the spot. But the way companies building much of the infrastructure will earn returns on their investment, he says, is through recurring billing, just like the cellphone industry.
Mr. Ramsey is a staff reporter in The Wall Street Journal's Detroit bureau. He can be reached at mike.ramsey@wsj.com.
The subscriptions offer different rates and advantages depending on how much and where drivers plan to charge their vehicles. Each three-year plan comes with free home installation of a 240-volt charging dock that can recharge the large batteries in electric vehicles in about half the time of a standard outlet. For $89 a month, the cost of all charging is included, whether at home or at an eVgo station. For $79, a driver receives unlimited charges at eVgo stations but pays for home charging on his or her electricity bill. For $49 a month, customers will pay for each charge separately but get access to the full network of stations. Charges won't be allowed without subscriptions.
NRG says it has plans to expand the eVgo network well beyond Texas. For now, its Houston and Dallas-Fort Worth subscribers will receive a key chain fob that allows them to use the eVgo stations in their specific city. In a few months, the company says, the same fob will work in Houston or Dallas.
Arun Banskota, president of EV Services, says the company also is trying to figure out how its subscribers could eventually use a network of 100 charging locations being installed by Austin Energy, a utility company in the Texas capital, which isn't part of the eVgo territory right now. Austin Energy is offering an introductory rate of $25 for six months of unlimited charging at its public charging stations. Users will get a swipe card that identifies them.
Making Connections
"We will have to figure out a way that our eVgo charging network will communicate with the chargers in Austin," Mr. Banskota says, noting that developing some kind of roaming system is a priority so that people can seamlessly go from one network to another.One of the oldest and broadest networks of charging stations, ChargePoint, from Coulomb Technologies Inc. in Campbell, Calif., lets consumers charge their cars at 750 locations around the country without subscriptions. ChargePoint stations are mostly built by Coulomb but are owned and operated by businesses or local governments.
Although there are no subscriptions, ChargePoint customers who register can plug into the entire network of stations using an online system that lets them schedule charging appointments and pay with a ChargePoint payment card. Registered members set up online accounts that are used to preload the payment cards with money and to locate and make appointments at the stations. Each station charges its own rates, and some have separate credit-card-swiping systems.
Richard Lowenthal, Coulomb's founder and chief technical officer, says there will always be a need for charging docks that take a credit card on the spot. But the way companies building much of the infrastructure will earn returns on their investment, he says, is through recurring billing, just like the cellphone industry.
Mr. Ramsey is a staff reporter in The Wall Street Journal's Detroit bureau. He can be reached at mike.ramsey@wsj.com.
Electric Vehicle Charging Stations Likely to Use Subscriptions - WSJ.com
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