Coulomb Technologies Announces New Smart Charging Infrastructure

Coulomb Technologies announced a smart charging infrastructure for plug-in vehicles. Coulomb states that it has developed a complete solution targeting plug-in vehicles including Extended Range Electric Vehicles, Plug-in Hybrid Vehicles, and Battery Electric Vehicles. Coulomb’s ChargePoint™ Network includes public charging stations, a consumer subscription plan and utility grid management technology for electric utility companies to smooth electrical demands on the grid.

According to General Motors Vice President of Global Program Management, Jon Lauckner, "GM is committed to the success of the plug-in vehicles, including Extended Range Electric Vehicles like the future Chevy Volt, and together with infrastructure solutions like that of Coulomb Technologies, we are all moving closer to the commercialization of plug-in vehicles. Intelligent infrastructure technology like Coulomb’s is needed for the rapid adoption of plug-in vehicles and to help address the needs and concerns of drivers, utilities, governments, and parking space owners."

Coulomb claims that its ChargePoint Network integrates three unique components into a seamless, scalable, reliable, cost-effective solution. At the edge of the ChargePoint Network are Smartlet™ Charging Stations that are individually controlled through the wireless Smartlet Communications Network and the ChargePoint Network Operating System. Coulomb’s core technology includes the elements required to build and enable a smart charging infrastructure for plug-in vehicles.

The Smartlet Charging Stations perform bi-directional energy metering and control, user authentication, and 802.15.4 wireless local area network technology, which enables a subscription model through communication with a data center. The Smartlet Communications Network provides a high reliability meshed network using 802.15.4 technology and GSM/GRPS technology to communicate with the Network Operating System for user authentication, access control, energy flow control and energy metering. The ChargePoint Network Operating System (NOS): Manages the Smartlet Charging Stations through the Smartlet Communications Network. The ChargePoint Network also provides web portals for subscribers, hosts and utilities. Functions include user authentication, access control, energy flow control, location management, utility company policy administration, user portal, host property portal, utility portal and GPS system interface.

"Major automakers have announced delivery of plug-in vehicles to the U.S. marketplace by 2010. But with 54 million garages for the 247 million registered passenger vehicles in the U.S. today, most consumers do not have a way to charge a plug-in vehicle," said Richard Lowenthal CEO of Coulomb Technologies. "We have developed a scalable, smart charging infrastructure that provides municipalities and parking lot owners a recurring income stream through public charging stations that are easy to install and maintain. Our complete technology solution also provides electric utility companies a means to control the load that plug-in vehicles put on the grid and a means to compute and implement taxes on electricity as a transportation fuel."

Coulomb Technologies has two inter-related businesses: a product sales business and a service business. Smartlet Charging Stations are sold to municipalities and parking lot owners as capital equipment in a business-to-business model. Charging access is sold to drivers of plug-in vehicles as a subscription service in a business-to-consumer model. Both the Smartlet Charging Stations and ChargePoint Network Operating System will be available in Q4 2008.