With oil prices increasing again, a return to pre-recession gasoline costs looks inevitable. My good friend Ryan, an attorney, a person who is not traditionally green says now: “I told you this was going to happen, that’s why I bought a Prius last year.” Additionally, while in a Walgreen’s parking lot in Chicago’s “West Loop” I saw my first parking lot charging station. The electric car chargers at are part of the “Putting the green in Walgreen’s” campaign. It looks like Ryan was right last year and now Corporate America is getting more behind being green.
Ford motor company is leading the way when it comes to new hybrid and electric cars. Ford has developed a home charging system to be released for its new electric Focus and other hybrid vehicles. It looks as though hybrids are here to stay. The wall-mounted charging unit will be powered by a standard 240V outlet. The system is set to retail at about $1500.00 making it 30% cheaper than competing, similar systems. The system will be available through Best Buy with installation by the GeekSquad to make the process seamless and as easy as any other appliance purchase. The unit is also move ready if you want to take it when you move residences.
The charger is built by Leviton with Microsoft programming and has the ability to offer a straight or value charge. The straight charge will charge your vehicle to full capacity in 3 hours about half the time it takes with a Nissan home charger. Additionally, if you are parking overnight or for an extended period, you can set the charger to value charge and tell the car when you need it to be fully charged by. From there, it will charge your vehicle at the cheapest demand rates from your local utility. This will save the homeowner money and also decrease peak loads. The charger also comes with a smart phone app to monitor the status of your charge from anywhere.
To see more about being green at Ford see:
http://corporate.ford.com/microsites/sustainability-report-2010-11/issues-climate-electrification-lifestyle
http://green.autoblog.com/2011/01/10/ford-teams-with-best-buy-to-sell-install-focus-electric-charger/
http://www.leviton.com/OA_HTML/ibeCZzpHome.jsp?minisite=10091&respid=22372
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