ECOtality releases blueprint for 425 miles of EV TN freeway

My Nissan Leaf Forum

Help Support My Nissan Leaf Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

mwalsh

Well-known member
Leaf Supporting Member
Joined
Apr 22, 2010
Messages
9,781
Location
Garden Grove, CA
ECOtality releases blueprint for 425 miles of EV freeway in Tennessee

State’s new EV corridor will connect Nashville, Knoxville and Chattanooga

NASHVILLE — Wednesday, September 8, 2010 — ECOtality, Inc. (NASDAQ:ECTY ), a leader in clean electric transportation and storage technologies, will reveal today the details of the company’s EV infrastructure implementation plans during a panel at the Tennessee Valley Authority’s (TVA) Fuels Solution Forum. These planning documents mark the completion of a critical milestone in the company’s work with The EV Project, the world’s largest rollout of EV infrastructure, and set the stage for the deployment of charging stations across the project’s largest geographic region.

With plans to deploy approximately 2,500 residential, commercial and DC fast charging stations, The EV Project will provide nearly 425 miles of connected EV infrastructure in Tennessee. Working closely with the TVA, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) and other regional stakeholders, ECOtality applied its innovative EV Micro-Climate™ process to Tennessee to determine the most effective way to install a rich charging station infrastructure that would encourage consumer EV adoption in three major cities—Nashville, Knoxville and Chattanooga—and along the three transportation corridors linking them.

tn-state-view-small_1.jpg


“Tennessee is the first state to take the electric vehicle beyond its 100-mile radius. With these plans completed, the state of Tennessee will emerge as a leader in EV adoption, and serve as a critical blueprint for how best to connect major population areas with EV infrastructure,” said Jonathan Read, CEO of ECOtality, Inc. “We are thankful for the input TVA and our partners in each city have provided throughout the planning process. We are taking a smart and strategic approach to the deployment of EV infrastructure so as to best create a connected, highly functional EV charging network.”

“There’s a groundswell of enthusiasm for electric vehicles that has taken hold not only in the Tennessee Valley Authority, but throughout the entire state as a result of The EV Project,” said Kim Greene, TVA Group president of Strategy and External Relations. “TVA has been fortunate to play an instrumental role in bringing together all the stakeholders to start mapping out the future of electric transportation in Tennessee. The lessons we learn through the EV Project will help TVA and local power companies better meet the growing needs of electricity as a transportation fuel here in the Tennessee Valley and share those lessons with communities throughout the nation.”

As part of the planning process, ECOtality took into account the locations of major regional employers, transportation corridors, commercial centers and area attractions to determine the project’s charging footprint in Tennessee. Moving forward, the documents will serve as the basis for ongoing stakeholder engagement and site selection.

"This project will bring exciting, pace-setting change to our local region, and we are pleased to join our partners in leading its deployment,” said Dana Christensen, Associate Laboratory Director, Energy & Engineering Sciences, for Oak Ridge National Laboratory. “Electric vehicles represent one of many approaches that ORNL, along with DOE, is pursuing to reduce the lab's carbon footprint and meet the nation’s energy and environment challenges."

As the project manager for The EV Project, ECOtality North America is overseeing the rollout of the largest deployment of EV infrastructure ever in the United States. The $230 million public-private initiative is funded with a $114.8 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). The project encompasses 16 cities in six states, as well as Washington, D.C., and will install more than 15,000 charging stations.

“The operational and commercial lessons we learn in Tennessee will be applied to electric vehicle charging networks nationwide,” said Don Karner, President of ECOtality North America. “By serving as a living laboratory, Tennessee will provide invaluable information that will prove essential to encouraging the mass consumer adoption of electric vehicles.”

The planning documents will be discussed at 2 PM during “Spotlight: The EV Project.” Additional details and the conference agenda can be found at http://www.tva.gov/fuel_solutions/agenda.htm.
 
<joke>
All the grant money was used hiring a large, well-known government contractor to do the initial planning, and then provide the $3,000,000 map shown above. Actual implementation will require an additional $13 Billion for land aquisition, $37 Billion for environmental impact-of-parking-lot studies, $1 Billion for construction, and $57 Billion for landscaping, all by the same, no-bid government contractor. After that, each location will still require power, access roads, and signage, expexted to extend the project's opening to 2047, claims an informed but unnamed source, possibly from Detroit.
</joke>
 
Where are the QC (L3) e-stations?

The driving distance from Nashville to Knoxville is 179 miles.

With the e-station spacing at 35 to 45 miles, and
some e-stations being significantly OFF the US 40 freeway/tollway ...
and 80% charges giving perhaps a 50-mile highway/hill range,
it might be necessary to stop at 3 or 4 way-stations to make the 179-mile trip.
 
Gonewild said:
Where is the plan for AZ or CA?

California already has an amazing charger density - while the rest of the country is a charger vacuum. Plans are already in place for complete coverage of I5 from Vancouver to San Diego, with a stated expansion on I10 from LA to Phoenix.

Just as Nissan has had to work hard to find host cities and push hard for permitting and partnering - looks like Arizonans will have to start calling and writing if they want to be heard.

http://www.nissanusa.com/leaf-elect...age.Home.P2#/leaf-electric-car/advocacy/index

http://www.projectgetready.org/
 
Washington state announced its "electric highway" project earlier this year. Late this year L3 chargers go in on I-5; east-west routes (which likely means I-90) get L3 by next summer.

This might be nice for medium jaunts, but I'd personally want longer legs to do something like the 4.5-5 hr drive we often make from Seattle to Corvallis. Doing it in LEAF would turn that trip into a ~6-6.5 hr drive assuming every charge stop finds an available L3, you don't drive normal I-5 speeds, and can charge to 80% of capacity. Would be fun to do once or twice when we have a long weekend, but not regularly.

Five years from now, when a 2015 LEAF has 150+ mile range, this gets really interesting.
 
Back
Top