http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/14/yves-behar-designed-ge-wattstation-electric-vehicle-charger-spru/ Engadget Comments for Yves Behar-designed GE WattStation electric vehicle charger spruces streets, juices cars http://www.engadget.com/media/feedlogo.gif http://www.engadget.com en-us Copyright 2012 Weblogs, Inc. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only. Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/14/yves-behar-designed-ge-wattstation-electric-vehicle-charger-spru/http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/14/yves-behar-designed-ge-wattstation-electric-vehicle-charger-spru/Jul 14th 2010 3:06AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/07/14/yves-behar-designed-ge-wattstation-electric-vehicle-charger-spru/http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/14/yves-behar-designed-ge-wattstation-electric-vehicle-charger-spru/
Just wait till the DIY'ers figure out ways to make use of these things.
Probably just use em to charge their cellphones or something, but, they could always figure out a way to BLOW UP CARS like on "Demolition Man"]]>Jul 14th 2010 10:45AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/07/14/yves-behar-designed-ge-wattstation-electric-vehicle-charger-spru/http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/14/yves-behar-designed-ge-wattstation-electric-vehicle-charger-spru/
P.S. Did anyone else notice the OLPC in his studio?]]>Jul 14th 2010 6:16PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/07/14/yves-behar-designed-ge-wattstation-electric-vehicle-charger-spru/http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/14/yves-behar-designed-ge-wattstation-electric-vehicle-charger-spru/
i think battery renting could be more efficient.]]>Jul 15th 2010 3:03AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/07/14/yves-behar-designed-ge-wattstation-electric-vehicle-charger-spru/http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/14/yves-behar-designed-ge-wattstation-electric-vehicle-charger-spru/Jul 14th 2010 3:15AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/07/14/yves-behar-designed-ge-wattstation-electric-vehicle-charger-spru/http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/14/yves-behar-designed-ge-wattstation-electric-vehicle-charger-spru/Jul 14th 2010 3:18AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/07/14/yves-behar-designed-ge-wattstation-electric-vehicle-charger-spru/http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/14/yves-behar-designed-ge-wattstation-electric-vehicle-charger-spru/
or some idiot will electrocute themselves to death by using it with their non-electric cars. ]]>Jul 14th 2010 3:21AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/07/14/yves-behar-designed-ge-wattstation-electric-vehicle-charger-spru/http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/14/yves-behar-designed-ge-wattstation-electric-vehicle-charger-spru/Jul 14th 2010 10:02AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/07/14/yves-behar-designed-ge-wattstation-electric-vehicle-charger-spru/http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/14/yves-behar-designed-ge-wattstation-electric-vehicle-charger-spru/

Laughing Out Loud !!!!!!!!! now that's the truth !]]>Jul 14th 2010 6:57PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/07/14/yves-behar-designed-ge-wattstation-electric-vehicle-charger-spru/http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/14/yves-behar-designed-ge-wattstation-electric-vehicle-charger-spru/Jul 14th 2010 3:19AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/07/14/yves-behar-designed-ge-wattstation-electric-vehicle-charger-spru/http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/14/yves-behar-designed-ge-wattstation-electric-vehicle-charger-spru/Jul 14th 2010 3:23AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/07/14/yves-behar-designed-ge-wattstation-electric-vehicle-charger-spru/http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/14/yves-behar-designed-ge-wattstation-electric-vehicle-charger-spru/
Dog tails across the country wagged a little faster today.



]]>Jul 14th 2010 3:32AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/07/14/yves-behar-designed-ge-wattstation-electric-vehicle-charger-spru/http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/14/yves-behar-designed-ge-wattstation-electric-vehicle-charger-spru/Jul 14th 2010 3:41AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/07/14/yves-behar-designed-ge-wattstation-electric-vehicle-charger-spru/http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/14/yves-behar-designed-ge-wattstation-electric-vehicle-charger-spru/Jul 14th 2010 5:13AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/07/14/yves-behar-designed-ge-wattstation-electric-vehicle-charger-spru/http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/14/yves-behar-designed-ge-wattstation-electric-vehicle-charger-spru/
But it's good to see this product developed.

I still think the better solution is removable batteries you exchange like a propane tank, common across automakers, maintained relatively consistently by gas station operators, with a credit for how much power was left on the cell you turned in and a deposit for the cost of an entire battery.]]>Jul 14th 2010 3:41AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/07/14/yves-behar-designed-ge-wattstation-electric-vehicle-charger-spru/http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/14/yves-behar-designed-ge-wattstation-electric-vehicle-charger-spru/
Really??? A removable battery that weighs how many hundreds of pounds? These aren't AA size, they're massive batteries. Plus trying to get companies to agree on a standard battery seems a lot less likely than the already agreed upon standard plug size. The battery, its capacity and how it's charged would all be proprietary technology for the respective automakers while a standard plug is relatively inconsequential.

I'm not sure if this is the best design for charging EV vehicles but charging stations are definitely the next step. Some researchers have already gotten charging times up to 80% capacity in about 11 minutes. That's enough for long trips and you can do the full fast & trickle charge at home over 3-4 hours.

Current battery tech isn't at this level yet, but hopefully once the the charging speeds are fast enough, I hope the government invests in nationwide charging stations alongside gas stations similar to when we expanded the national highways over half a decade ago.

Investment in infrastructure is necessary to move into the next phase of clean energy. ]]>Jul 14th 2010 4:14AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/07/14/yves-behar-designed-ge-wattstation-electric-vehicle-charger-spru/http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/14/yves-behar-designed-ge-wattstation-electric-vehicle-charger-spru/
I agree with Dustin that the ultimate goal is to use batteries like we use gas/petrol. When we run out we refill. The fastest way to refill is to exchange the empty battery with one that is full if we are in a hurry (5 minutes if you check Better Place video) or plug in at home if we have plenty of time. These are rechargeable batteries, and as I do at home when I have to recharge my battery without waiting to wait for it: I replace it with an already charged battery. I do not agree with having recharging stations like the one mentioned above as we live in communities where few of their elements do not respect any types of property (private or public) and these will get eventually vandalized and their use will be limited. Ravissimo is correct, these are no AA batteries we are talking about. But I also say that we already have the infrastructure of gas stations everywhere that can be retrofitted with battery exchanging bays. The money the government is spending on installing these recharging stations everwhere in communities or parking garages counld be better utilized to retrofit fewer gas stations with higher current rechrging stations and exchange bays.

The current battery types although not standard are limited to the number of companies that produce electric cars and will not be a big issue to store some of those at the gas station for ready exchange and as the gas station accumulates exchanged batteries these will get recharged.

In my opinion this is the fastest and least disruptive way of deploying the infrastructure.

Toe-Knee]]>Jul 14th 2010 9:14AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/07/14/yves-behar-designed-ge-wattstation-electric-vehicle-charger-spru/http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/14/yves-behar-designed-ge-wattstation-electric-vehicle-charger-spru/
I don't know enough about batteries... but why not just replace the worn acid inside with charged acid? Is that even possible?]]>Jul 14th 2010 10:53AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/07/14/yves-behar-designed-ge-wattstation-electric-vehicle-charger-spru/http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/14/yves-behar-designed-ge-wattstation-electric-vehicle-charger-spru/
The next phase will probably be hydrogen. People diss it because it takes more energy to make than it gives back, but they are stupidly misunderstanding that it's just a storage medium like a battery and waste is inherent.

I think swappable batteries would be easy to implement. Yes, they weigh a lot. You could be guided onto some kind of ramp that swivels a little and swaps the battery in 30 seconds, giving you a new 200 miles of range.

Obviously, I'm not talking about current battery powered cars, but cars designed to work with this kind of system.

I like the other guy's idea about swapping the liquid in the battery, but that probably can't work with modern battery tech.

We have to think outside the box a little. It's never going to work for me if I have to wait for my battery to recharge.]]>Jul 14th 2010 1:26PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/07/14/yves-behar-designed-ge-wattstation-electric-vehicle-charger-spru/http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/14/yves-behar-designed-ge-wattstation-electric-vehicle-charger-spru/Jul 14th 2010 3:49AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/07/14/yves-behar-designed-ge-wattstation-electric-vehicle-charger-spru/http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/14/yves-behar-designed-ge-wattstation-electric-vehicle-charger-spru/

a simple locking system would suffice.]]>Jul 14th 2010 9:40AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/07/14/yves-behar-designed-ge-wattstation-electric-vehicle-charger-spru/http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/14/yves-behar-designed-ge-wattstation-electric-vehicle-charger-spru/Jul 14th 2010 4:00AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/07/14/yves-behar-designed-ge-wattstation-electric-vehicle-charger-spru/http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/14/yves-behar-designed-ge-wattstation-electric-vehicle-charger-spru/Jul 14th 2010 4:32AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/07/14/yves-behar-designed-ge-wattstation-electric-vehicle-charger-spru/http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/14/yves-behar-designed-ge-wattstation-electric-vehicle-charger-spru/
Can you image the confusion if electric car owners had to carry a range of charging adapters.]]>Jul 14th 2010 4:35AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/07/14/yves-behar-designed-ge-wattstation-electric-vehicle-charger-spru/http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/14/yves-behar-designed-ge-wattstation-electric-vehicle-charger-spru/Jul 14th 2010 4:45AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/07/14/yves-behar-designed-ge-wattstation-electric-vehicle-charger-spru/http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/14/yves-behar-designed-ge-wattstation-electric-vehicle-charger-spru/Jul 14th 2010 5:50AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/07/14/yves-behar-designed-ge-wattstation-electric-vehicle-charger-spru/http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/14/yves-behar-designed-ge-wattstation-electric-vehicle-charger-spru/That certainly does seem likely - because they are dickheads.]]>Jul 14th 2010 6:38AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/07/14/yves-behar-designed-ge-wattstation-electric-vehicle-charger-spru/http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/14/yves-behar-designed-ge-wattstation-electric-vehicle-charger-spru/
maybe the cars could have a locking mechanism that's operated with the car's key?]]>Jul 14th 2010 6:39AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/07/14/yves-behar-designed-ge-wattstation-electric-vehicle-charger-spru/http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/14/yves-behar-designed-ge-wattstation-electric-vehicle-charger-spru/Jul 14th 2010 6:42AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/07/14/yves-behar-designed-ge-wattstation-electric-vehicle-charger-spru/http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/14/yves-behar-designed-ge-wattstation-electric-vehicle-charger-spru/
1- The LED service signal seems like an unnecessary waste of energy. Why not use a display like color EInk where the energy consumption is minimized?

2- The screen orientation while ergonomically correct + the cool glossy finish, will make it hard for users to see it in direct sunlight. Though a proximity / light sensors could adjust the display inside the frame for better viewing angles. Also a rounded screen would fit more seamlessly with the design.]]>Jul 14th 2010 6:44AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/07/14/yves-behar-designed-ge-wattstation-electric-vehicle-charger-spru/http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/14/yves-behar-designed-ge-wattstation-electric-vehicle-charger-spru/Jul 14th 2010 6:50AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/07/14/yves-behar-designed-ge-wattstation-electric-vehicle-charger-spru/http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/14/yves-behar-designed-ge-wattstation-electric-vehicle-charger-spru/Jul 14th 2010 7:16AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/07/14/yves-behar-designed-ge-wattstation-electric-vehicle-charger-spru/http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/14/yves-behar-designed-ge-wattstation-electric-vehicle-charger-spru/Jul 14th 2010 7:21AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/07/14/yves-behar-designed-ge-wattstation-electric-vehicle-charger-spru/http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/14/yves-behar-designed-ge-wattstation-electric-vehicle-charger-spru/Jul 14th 2010 7:43AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/07/14/yves-behar-designed-ge-wattstation-electric-vehicle-charger-spru/http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/14/yves-behar-designed-ge-wattstation-electric-vehicle-charger-spru/Jul 14th 2010 7:49AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/07/14/yves-behar-designed-ge-wattstation-electric-vehicle-charger-spru/http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/14/yves-behar-designed-ge-wattstation-electric-vehicle-charger-spru/Jul 14th 2010 9:11AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/07/14/yves-behar-designed-ge-wattstation-electric-vehicle-charger-spru/http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/14/yves-behar-designed-ge-wattstation-electric-vehicle-charger-spru/Jul 14th 2010 9:43AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/07/14/yves-behar-designed-ge-wattstation-electric-vehicle-charger-spru/http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/14/yves-behar-designed-ge-wattstation-electric-vehicle-charger-spru/Jul 14th 2010 10:50AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/07/14/yves-behar-designed-ge-wattstation-electric-vehicle-charger-spru/http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/14/yves-behar-designed-ge-wattstation-electric-vehicle-charger-spru/Jul 14th 2010 11:52AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/07/14/yves-behar-designed-ge-wattstation-electric-vehicle-charger-spru/http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/14/yves-behar-designed-ge-wattstation-electric-vehicle-charger-spru/

As an aside, what's this story have to do with Minneapolis? ]]>Jul 14th 2010 11:59AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/07/14/yves-behar-designed-ge-wattstation-electric-vehicle-charger-spru/http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/14/yves-behar-designed-ge-wattstation-electric-vehicle-charger-spru/Jul 14th 2010 1:25PM