How Retailers Are Looking To Attract New Customers With EV Charging Stations

With electric vehicle sales projected to be 140,000 units in the year 2014, it makes sense that retailers will look for ways to attract this emerging market to their stores. A growing number of retailers are installing EV charging locations with the hopes of luring this typically upscale driver. In the beginning it appears that stores, restaurants, malls and other retailers will not be charging a fee to use their charging stations with the hopes that the consumer will enter their store and spend money. In all, consumers living in the United States are projected to have access to 21500 public EV charging locations by the year 2015. Most will be level 2 chargers that can recharge a depleted EV battery in 6 to 8 hours. Even though the federal government allocated 400 million for installing publicly accessible charging stations to help retailers, very few will be level 3 rapid chargers because the cost can be in excess of $100,000 per unit.

Here is a list of retailers that are already using EV charging stations to attract consumers.

The Cracker Barrel- This chain has committed to install charging locations in 24 of its restaurants in the state of Tennessee, which coincidentally is where Nissan will start building the LEAF next year.

Simon Property Group- The largest owner of U.S. shopping malls said it is adding EV charge points to its 260 store mall in Orlando Florida and the Stanford Shopping Center in Palo Alto California.

Macy's- Last week Macy's reached an agreement with ECOtality to install a dozen EV charging stations at six Macy's department stores.

Mall Of America- Even though it is located in a colder climate the largest shopping mall in the country has already installed four charging stations in their parking ramps.

Best Buy- This home electronics giant will be installing EV chargers at most of their stores but will be charging an access fee for a variety of plans that will top out at $79.00 a month for unlimited access.

BellEVue Collection Shopping District- This shopping center which is located just east of Seattle added 15 charging stations in their parking lots.

Fred Meyers Supermarkets- In the process of installing EV charging locations at eight of their Seattle and Portland area stores.

As the number of electric vehicles on the road increases, retailers are hoping to profit from charging station installations by pitching both the ability to recharge while you shop and the convenience of having prime parking spaces reserved for people with electric vehicles.

You can read more articles about electric vehicles and view maps of EV charging locations here http://www.evcharginglocations.com/ Thanks.

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Water Fueled Car - Looking Forward to a Cheap, Clean, Green Future

Imagine if you will...it's 7:30 AM, time for you to head to work, you go outside to your car, get in, turn the key in the ignition, and realize you don't have enough fuel to get to work. No problem, you head back into the house, get a pitcher of water, and go fill up your car because you are one of the few people with a water fueled car. Sound impossible? We might not be able to do this today, but scientists are currently working to develop a viable water fueled car.

There is energy contained in water. This energy is in the bonds between the hydrogen and oxygen atoms and can be released through electrolysis or combustion by the pistons and crankshaft. Most water fueled car models utilize some form of electrolysis because this produces the most stable form of energy derived from water. The power from the electrical system in the car is used to electrolyze water into a mixture known as Brown's Gas, HHO, or ox hydrogen. This mixture consists of two hydrogen atoms to one oxygen atom. This Brown's Gas is directed to the intake manifold where it would replace that non-renewable energy source of gasoline.

There are a few examples of water fueled cars around today, but none of them are actually available to the public just yet. The most well-known example of a water fueled car was created by Stanley Meyer. Meyer took the spark plugs out of a dune buggy and used injectors instead. The injectors were used to spray a mist of water into the engine cylinders. This mist was subjected to electrical resonance. The fueled cell then split the mist into the hydrogen and oxygen molecules which generated a mini-explosion (combustion), and this is what powered the dune buggy. Essentially, Meyer created a conventional combustion engine but used water as the fuel instead of gasoline.

In 1935, Charles H. Garrett developed a carburetor which relied on water to create the spark needed to run an engine. In Garrett's system, a float-type carburetor was used with electrolysis plates in the lower portion of the carburetor. The float was used to maintain the water level in order to fuel the vehicle.

Hydrogen Technology Applications was trying to develop an alternative to the oxy-acetylene welding tool when they discovered their machine developed a mixture of hydrogen oxygen gas which they have since dubbed aquygen. This aquygen is supposed to be a form of magnegas which may be used to replace conventional gasoline in water fueled cars of the future.

More recently, the Japanese company Genepax created a water fueled car system which relies on a combination of water and air to power their vehicle. This water fueled car has an on board energy generator which extracts hydrogen from water in order to provide fuel to run the car's engine.

While water fueled cars may not be available just yet, they are certainly something that people who are concerned about the earth's future may be purchasing in a relatively short period of time.

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