Amsterdam picks Coulomb's EV charging stations

The city of Amsterdam has selected Campbell, Calif.-based Coulomb Technologies to move forward with its electric vehicle charging station vision, unveiling the first station earlier this week.

The deal puts the company of ahead of its revenue projections of $2.4 million for the year, Coulomb's CEO Richard Lowenthal told the Cleantech Group, while marking a progressive move on the part of the city.

"We're not seeking which cities to go after; they are picking us," Lowenthal said.

Lowenthal said the charging stations are $5,000 each, but wouldn't say how much the city of Amsterdam is paying his company.

Last month, the city of Amsterdam said it planned to deploy 200 charging stations before 2012, which are expected to fuel 10,000 electric cars in 2015, but it didn't name the vendor. The news that Coulomb will supply the charging stations was announced this week, including the first phase of 45 Coulomb charging stations initially being deployed as part of a two-year public demonstration project. Even though it's a demonstration project, Lowenthal said they don't expect the charging stations to ever be returned to Coulomb.

Cities including Amsterdam have been mapping out places where people leave their cars, such as semi-public garages, where the vehicles can charge overnight.

"The charging stations aren't decorating downtown or retail," he said. "We're seeing some in mass transit and train stations."

Lowenthal said Amsterdam, already ruled by bicycles and pushing for cleaner vehicles, is "breaking the chicken and the egg" cycle, deploying the charging network before the people have widely adopted electric vehicles. The city plans to expand the network as demand grows.

"They want to be the first city in Europe to welcome electric vehicles," he said.

Dutch energy company Nuon has been chosen to provide renewable energy for the smart charging stations, called the Charged Point Networked Charging Stations. And Coulomb’s international partner 365 Energy Group is expected to manage the charging stations for subscribers. In March, Coulomb announced its expansion into Europe, the Middle East and Africa, opening its European headquarters, through the 365 Energy Group, a venture of Berlin, Germany’s Estag Capital.

Coulomb said it plans to provide an inclusive open architecture so that Amsterdam’s electric vehicle owners, from individual consumers to fleet managers, municipalities and utilities, can easily make the switch from gasoline to electricity as a fuel. Electric vehicle drivers are expected to be able subscribe to the charging network through the Web and receive a smart card that allows them to power up their car at any charging station.

Lowenthal said he's seeing broad interest throughout Western Europe in adopting the charging station network, highlighting Spain, France and the Nordic countries. He indicated an expected announcement from Belgium in about a week.

Drivers can find charging stations through Google (Nasdaq:GOOG) maps and request new stations through a subscriber portal. As the network expands across Europe, drivers are expected to have access to the service in any city, regardless of their provider.

The charging stations provide fleet managers with an online portal that displays performance data and graphs for their plug-in fleet. The networked charging stations also report greenhouse gas savings and gas savings, and notify drivers and fleet managers via text message when individual vehicles are past due for charging, when charging abnormally terminates, and when the charging is done.

Other companies and cities are also moving forward in the electric vehicle market. Oslo, Norway's electric car maker Think Global announced in March it started selling electric vehicles in the Netherlands, calling for Think to deliver 500 of its Th!nk City vehicles in 2009. Think initially sold the Th!nk City solely in Norway but says it plans to roll out the vehicle in "EV-friendly cities" starting this year (see Think goes Dutch).

Think highlighted Amsterdam and Rotterdam as two cities that have expressed interest in the car, which can reach 65 miles per hour and travel up to 112 miles on a charge.

In April, the Renault-Nissan Alliance said it plans to sell electric cars in China in early 2011. The Renault-Nissan Alliance, comprised of France's Renault and Japan's Nissan Motor (Nasdaq:NSANY), signed a deal with the Wuhan city government for vehicles and a charging network. (see China taps Renault-Nissan for electric car pilot in 2011)

The alliance is expected to help develop the network on vehicle charging stations. In other projects underway in Australia, Israel and Denmark, Renault-Nissan agreed to deliver the vehicles, while Palo Alto, Calif.-based Better Place is building vehicle-charging networks (see Better Place to charge up Australia, Electric cars are coming to Israel and Project Better Place goes to Denmark).

In Israel, Better Place’s plans call for 500,000 charging stations to be built across the nation, allowing drivers to recharge their electric vehicles or swap batteries.

Cleantech developments making news in the past 24 hours

• Metabolix, ADM to open new bioplastics factory
• Rockwool nears construction on Indian insulation factory
• Two Israeli wastewater firms to locate in Michigan
• Al Gore: Super grid is critical to combating the climate crisis
• A quest for CO2 and O2 optimal management with biofuel from algae

View the last week of cleantech developments here | Subscribe to full feed