28 States To Get Smartlet Electric Vehicle Charging Station Distributors, Entire US + Canada Early Next Year
by Matthew McDermott, New York, NY 
on 12. 2.08
image: Coulomb Technologies
A bit over a week ago Coulomb Technologies announced that it would be installing 40 of its electric vehicle charging stations across California. Now the company will be expanding access to these chargers through regional reseller programs in 28 states, in the Northeast, Southeast, West, and Mountain regions. The program is expected to be expanded to the Midwest, Texas and Canada in the first quarter of 2009.
These regional distributors will be responsible for identifying host parking property owners where the Smartlet Networked Charging Station units can be installed.
Coulomb’s reseller approach to expanding electric vehicle charging infrastructure differs from that of some of its rivals, such as Better Place, which in addition to installing charging stations at public parking location, also plans on building dedicated electric vehicle charging facilities at which drivers could swap out depleted batteries for fully charged ones.
More at: Coulomb Technologies
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This has failed so many times before. In fact, I can think of a charging station in Vacaville, California that has been sitting empty for ten years. People want normal outlets to plug their car into at home in their garage. Planning a business around the short-comings of an industry (limited range of EVs) is planning to be obsolete tomorrow. But the company only needs to con morons into buying this garbage to make money. Then they can skip town.
Better Place has an old idea that's great - swap out the power source at a "filling station" just like gasoline. Problem is, there isn't a universal power source. And to build a car around the idea is super expensive and extremely risky.
The recharging grid already exists. We need the cars.
This is where the big 3 American car manufacturers could really make a difference, by devloping and suppling interchangeable batteries for their cars, and the military technology could be great.