HEVO Power’s Winning Wireless EV Charging Station for Commercial Fleets
HEVO Power, a wirelesss EV charging network focused on commercial fleets, is coming off a win in the Cleantech Open Northeast semi-final competition held in Boston last night, in which it received $20,000 in cash.
The judges of the startup competition, which included several venture capitalists and strategic investors from the Boston area, selected just 4 teams, from the 34 teams total that presented, to move on to compete in Cleantech Open’s global competition to be held on November 20 and 21 in San Jose, California.
HEVO’s innovative cordless wireless charge system, which the company claims to offer 3X the charging rate and up to 3X the distance of its competitors, attaches underneath manhole covers. The technology was recently featured in Wired Magazine.
Its first pilot with e-Ride launches in October and the company plans to begin deploying their system around New York University’s campus in New York City in early 2014. It is also in discussions about rolling out its systems for the commercial fleets of PepsiCo, Walgreens and City Harvest.
HEVO received a $55,000 seed funding in June, a “green grant” from NYU in August and another $30,000 seed funding in September. The company is currently seeking $3 million in venture capital.
ABB Launches New Super Fast EV Chargers
ABB installed its new EV fast charger (the SAE Combo), capable of fully charging an EV in 15 to 30 minutes, in San Diego during National Plug In Day on September 28th, the first one installed in North America.
The new Combo unit is part of NRG’s eVgo network of chargers that are deployed in Texas and California, as well as the Washington DC, Maryland, Virginia regions. The eVgo network is the nation’s first comprehensive, privately funded electric vehicle infrastructure of residential and public fast charging stations.
ABB also just launched a new DC fast charger, the Terra 23, which can charge EVs in 30 to 60 minutes, which is designed for retail locations and office parks.
And this summer, ABB announced that they were selected by Dutch infrastructure firm Fastned to supply EV fast charging equipment across The Netherlands, which is set to have the most EV charging stations in the world.
ABB will supply more than 200 EV charging stations which will bring an EV fast charger within 30 miles of all of the country’s 16.7 million inhabitants.
ChargePoint’s New Lease Program to Spur Mass EV Adoption
ChargePoint launched a new finance program with KeyCorp this week, via a $100 million lease fund, to assist businesses and cities buy their systems (typically costing $6,000 – $12,000) to be used as public chargers for only $3-$6 per day. Customers can then charge users of the EV chargers or promote them as a service.
Chargepoint believes that this new finance program will spur mass EV adoption by overcoming a key barrier, the high upfront cost, according its press release.
Chargepoint received a $47.5 million series D round in May, 2012 from Braemar Energy Ventures, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Toyota Tsusho Corporation, Rho Ventures, Voyager Capital, Siemens, Harbor Pacific Capital Partners, and Hartford Ventures.
Car Charging Group Acquires Bankrupt Ecotality’s EV Assets
Car Charging Group acquired assets from bankrupt competitor Ecotality for $3.34 million this week, gaining the $230 million DOE funded EV network.
In the deal, Car Charging gained more than 12,450 installed Level II EV charging stations, 110 installed DC Fast charging stations, more than 2,800 stations in inventory, and the Blink Network, which is the turnkey operating system for EV drivers, commercial businesses, and utilities, that services Blink’s EV charging stations.
And in February, Car Charging Group acquired Beam Charging, the largest EV charging service provider in the New York City metro area.