Overview
The EV Project is the largest deployment of electric vehicles and charge infrastructure in history.
On August 5,
2009, ECOtality was awarded a $99.8 million dollar grant from the
U.S. Department of Energy to embark on this Project. The Project was officially launched on October 1, 2009 and will continue approximately 36 months.
In June 2010, the Project was granted an additional $15 million by the U.S. Department of Energy. With partner matches, the total value of the Project is now approximately $230 million.
ECOtality is deploying approximately 14,000 chargers in 18 major cities and metropolitan areas located in six states and the District of Columbia: California, Oregon, Washington, Arizona, Texas, Tennessee, and Washington, D.C. Chevrolet and Nissan North America are partners in The EV Project. Both Chevrolet Volt and Nissan LEAF drivers who qualify to participate in The EV Project receive a residential charger at no cost. In addition, most, if not all of the installation cost, are paid for by The EV Project.
The EV Project collects and analyzes data to characterize vehicle use in diverse topographic and climatic conditions, evaluates the effectiveness of charge infrastructure, and conducts trials of various revenue systems for commercial and public charge infrastructures. The ultimate goal of The EV Project is to take the lessons learned from the deployment of these first 8,300 EVs, and the charging infrastructure supporting them, to enable the streamlined deployment of the next 5,000,000 EVs.
In 2010 and 2011, charging infrastructure is being deployed in the following major population areas: Phoenix (AZ), Tucson (AZ),
San Diego (CA), San Francisco (CA), Los Angeles (CA), Portland (OR), Eugene (OR), Salem (OR), Corvallis (OR),
Seattle (WA), Nashville (TN), Knoxville (TN), Memphis (TN) and Chattanooga (TN), Washington D.C., Dallas (TX),
Fort Worth (TX), and Houston (TX).
The EV Project has qualified 8,300 LEAF and Volt customers for participation based upon home electrical power capabilities. Because a significant amount of vehicle charging takes place at EV driver residences, a portion of The EV Project funding supports home charging units, or more correctly called “Electric Vehicle Supply Equipment” (EVSE). Participants are receiving the home EVSE and up to $1200 credit toward the installation in exchange for allowing the collection of vehicle and charge information at home and publicly available EVSE. This information includes data from both the vehicle and the EVSE, including energy used and time and duration of charger use. No personal information is being shared or included in the data to be analyzed.
