Coulomb Technologies Celebrates with US Department of Energy, City of LA Significant ChargePoint America Electric Vehicle Program Milestone

LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Coulomb Technologies joined with the US Department of Energy and the City of Los Angeles today to celebrate a significant milestone for the ChargePoint America program, at a ceremony today in Exposition Park hosted by the Honorable Antonio Villaraigosa, Mayor of Los Angeles. US Energy Secretary Steven Chu and Coulomb Technologies founder and CTO Richard Lowenthal unveiled the 500^th ChargePoint America station available now on the ChargePoint® Network. Others attending the ceremony included ChargePoint America program vehicle partners Chevrolet, Ford and smart USA as well as electric vehicles from Nissan, Tesla Motors, Coda and Smith.

“The California Energy Commission is proud to be supporting electric vehicle charging efforts in Los Angeles as well EV charging stations throughout our State”

The $37 million ChargePoint America program is made possible by a $15M grant funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act through the Transportation Electrification Initiative administered by the Department of Energy, combined with $22 million from other public agencies including the California Energy Commission and private industry. Adding to the existing ChargePoint Network, the world’s largest charging network containing the largest number of EV drivers, the ChargePoint America program will provide 4,600 public and home ChargePoint Networked Charging Stations in 2011.

Since Coulomb’s ChargePoint America program announcement on June 1^st 2010, free program charging stations have been awarded and installed in all of the original nine program regions: Detroit, New York, Orlando, Fla., Washington DC, Sacramento, Calif., the San Jose/San Francisco Bay Area, Bellevue/Redmond, Wash, Los Angeles and Austin, TX. Recently, the program announced expansion into six new cities including Baltimore, MD, Central Florida (Tampa), Boston, Santa Barbara, CA, Ventura, CA and Santa Cruz, CA. The ChargePoint stations at Exposition Park are free and open to the public and were installed by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (DWP) and made part of the ChargePoint America program.

“With America’s families and businesses facing high gasoline prices, saving money at the pump is especially important today. So we are proud to support this project, which is making it easier for Americans to charge up their vehicles, instead of fill up tanks,” Secretary Chu said. “While there is no silver bullet for high gas prices, we are taking significant steps to help protect Americans in the long-term, reduce oil imports and move our country to a clean energy future.”

“As the car capital of the world, Los Angeles has a competitive advantage to leverage our massive market and iconic car culture to stand at the forefront of the electric vehicle revolution,” said Mayor Villaraigosa, “I would like to thank Secretary Chu and Coulomb for investing in our public charging infrastructure. This is a yet another step in our proactive efforts to ensure that our streets are ready for the thousands of electric cars that will be sold here.”

The ChargePoint Network of charging stations provide EV drivers easy-to-use unique services including the ability to: check real-time status and location of unoccupied charging stations, reserve a charging station, track and report greenhouse gas and gasoline savings, receive charging status notification by SMS, email or smart phone (iPhone and Blackberry) applications. Coulomb’s ChargePoint Network is open to all drivers of plug-in vehicles and all manufacturers of electric vehicle charging stations.

The ChargePoint Network enables businesses to provide a distinctive charging services, attract new customers and generate revenue from EV charging. Charging station owners can set their own prices for charging as a function of time of day, calendar date - much like a parking meter. Stations can also be configured to provide "free" access to EV drivers. Station owners can:

Recover energy costs with PCI compliant driver billing
Track and report energy usage and savings for greenhouse gas and fuel
Set multiple service plans for EV driver usage
Create flexible billing options for their customers without a subscription via contactless credit cards (Visa, MasterCard, AMEX, and Discover)
Access 24 X 7 station monitoring and driver support
Post custom advertising and greetings on the charging station display

“We are proud and honored the Obama administration is recognizing this milestone of the ChargePoint America program,” said Richard Lowenthal. “The expansion of the ChargePoint Network into Los Angeles is significant as this is the largest auto market in the world and yet Los Angeles is the recognized leader in taking action to keep clean air. But this goes beyond good energy policy; every time we install a ChargePoint America station here is Los Angeles, three Californians get work for a day – one to build the station and two to install it.”

“The California Energy Commission is proud to be supporting electric vehicle charging efforts in Los Angeles as well EV charging stations throughout our State,” said Energy Commission Vice Chair Jim Boyd. “California spends an average of $150 million a day on petroleum fuels and the transportation sector produces nearly 40 percent of the state's greenhouse gas emissions. By increasing our support of electric vehicle technology, California is creating a new transportation infrastructure, improving our air quality, strengthening our nation's energy security, and reducing the impact of global climate change.

“With funding from the Alternative and Renewable Fuel and Vehicle Technology Program (AB 118), the Energy Commission has awarded nearly $22 million for the electric charging infrastructure statewide. Coulomb Technologies has received $3.41 million from the Commission's AB 118 fund with $5 million in matching federal funds for the installation and upgrade of nearly 1,300 public EV charging stations in Los Angeles, the San Francisco Bay Area, and Sacramento,” Boyd added.

In the greater Los Angeles area, Coulomb’s ChargePoint America program is offering hundreds of free stations for public and home charging to individuals and businesses. Organizations in and around Los Angeles interested in receiving free public charging stations should visit the ChargePoint America web site www.chargepointamerica.com and sign up. Individuals interested in purchasing a program vehicle should see if they qualify for a free home charging station.

ABOUT THE California Energy Commission's Alternative and Renewable Fuel and Vehicle Technology Program:

The Alternative and Renewable Fuel and Vehicle Technology Program (AB 118) authorizes the Energy Commission to develop and deploy alternative and renewable fuels and advanced transportation technologies to help attain the state's climate change policies. Its annual budget of approximately $100 million helps support projects in the areas of: Developing and improving alternative and renewable low-carbon fuels; optimizing alternative and renewable fuels for existing and developing engine technologies; producing alternative and renewable low-carbon fuels in California; decreasing the overall impact and carbon footprint of alternative and renewable fuels and increasing sustainability; expanding fuel infrastructure, fueling stations, and equipment; improving light-, medium-, and heavy-duty vehicle technologies; retrofitting medium- and heavy-duty on-road and non-road vehicle fleets; expanding infrastructure connected with existing fleets, public transit, and transportation corridors; and establishing workforce training programs, conducting public education and creating technology centers.

About ChargePoint America

The $37 million ChargePoint America program is made possible by a $15M grant funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act through the Transportation Electrification Initiative administered by the Department of Energy, combined with matching funds from other government agencies and private industry. ChargePoint America will provide 4,600 public and home ChargePoint Networked Charging Stations this year, adding to the existing ChargePoint Network. Coulomb will work together with its distribution and industry partners to evaluate the demand from the respective geographic regions and allocate charging stations based on this and other factors. The ChargePoint America project will collect data characterizing vehicle use and charging patterns. Idaho National Labs will analyze the data. www.chargepointamerica.com

About Coulomb Technologies, Inc.

Coulomb Technologies is the leader in electric vehicle charging solutions, with charging systems and application services delivered by the ChargePoint Network. The ChargePoint Network provides multiple web-based portals for Hosts, Fleet Managers, Drivers, and Utilities. The open-system driver network went live in January 2009 and now operates in 14 countries with Network Operations Centers in the U.S., UK, and Hong Kong. Coulomb’s ChargePoint Networked Charging Stations range from 120 to 240 VAC charging up to 500 Volt DC fast charging with nearly 4000 stations shipped worldwide. For more information go to: www.coulombtech.com. Follow Coulomb on Twitter: twitter.com/coulombevi. Download the ChargePoint iPhone App. Download the ChargePoint Blackberry App.