Three ChargePoint Stations Located in Downtown Martinez to be Unveiled on Earth Day, 4/22/10, 11:00 am at City Hall
Martinez, CA – The City of Martinez is proud to announce that it will become the fifth Bay Area city to install ChargePoint® Networked Charging Stations for Electric Vehicles (EV). The three 120V stations, manufactured by Coulomb Technologies, a leader in EV charging station infrastructure, are located in and around downtown Martinez, including one at City Hall; one at Main and Court streets; and one at the Amtrak Station.
The official unveiling takes place during a ribbon cutting ceremony at 11 a.m. on Earth Day, Thursday, April 22, 2010 at Martinez City Hall, located at 525 Henrietta Street. City officials including Mayor Robert Schroder and representatives from Coulomb Technologies will be on hand for the ceremony, which will include a demonstration of the station in use with a Prius plug-in hybrid vehicle.
Installing the EV charging stations was important to the City of Martinez because it demonstrates support for cleaner transportation. Non-highway vehicle emissions accounted for almost 50 percent of the City’s overall greenhouse gas emissions in 2005. Affording the public convenient and accessible ways to utilize transportation options more friendly to the environment, such as charging stations for electric vehicles, is essential to the overall process of reducing the City’s carbon footprint and supports the goals of the City’s adopted Climate Action Plan.
The Martinez charging stations will be available for use by consumers for their personal electric vehicles, as well as by City staff to charge the City’s fleet of four electric vehicles used for local transportation in the downtown area. Martinez joins San Jose, San Francisco, Walnut Creek and Pleasant Hill as Bay Area cities that have networked charging stations installed. Other areas in Northern California include Campbell, Sonoma County and Chico.
Vehicles that are currently being sold and that can use these charging stations include the Wheego, the GEM (Global Electric Motorcar) and the Prius plug-in hybrid. Other vehicles scheduled to come on the market in 2010 include the BMW Mini E, Tesla Roadster, Nissan Leaf, Chevy Volt, and Triac by Green Vehicles. Anyone that comes to the unveiling event on April 22nd with one of the above plug-in vehicles will receive a card good for 10 free charging sessions.
“EV drivers have one more EV-friendly destination for their Bay Area travels as we welcome the City of Martinez to the ChargePoint Network,” said Richard Lowenthal, CEO of Coulomb Technologies. “These installations bring us one step closer to a metropolitan region where drivers can take their EV’s for all of their transportation needs and thereby reduce greenhouse gas emissions for a cleaner Bay Area that is less dependent on foreign oil.”
Measure C funding for the three EV charging stations was provided by 511 Contra Costa (the transportation demand management agency for local jurisdictions and the county) and approved by TRANSPAC. The Measure C funds are ½ cent sales tax for transportation improvement projects and are collected through the Contra Costa Transportation Authority and used to deliver local projects and programs. TRANSPAC is made up of elected officials and staff from each central Contra Costa County City (Pleasant Hill, Walnut Creek, Concord, Clayton, Martinez, and unincorporated portions of the county).
The network of electric vehicle charging stations is accessible to all plug-in drivers by making a toll free call to the 24/7 number on each charging station, or signing up for a ChargePoint Network monthly access plan and obtaining a ChargePass™ smart card. Other future payment options include using any smart (RFID) credit/debit card to authorize a session or using a standard credit or debit card at a remote payment station (RPS) to pay for charging sessions. To locate available charging stations, visit mychargepoint.net and click “Find Stations.”
About Coulomb Technologies, Inc.
Coulomb Technologies (http://www.coulombtech.com) is the leader in electric vehicle charging station infrastructure with networked charging stations installed in municipalities and organizations worldwide. Coulomb provides a vehicle-charging infrastructure, with an open system driver network. For more information, follow Coulomb on Twitter at twitter.com/coulombevi.
Media Contacts:
Michael Chandler
Senior Management Analyst
City of Martinez
925-372-3517
mchandler@cityofmartinez.org
Anne Smith
Coulomb Technologies, Inc.
408-313-8089
anne@annesmithcommunications.com
Corinne Dutra-Roberts
Sr. Transportation Analyst
511 Contra Costa
925-969-1193
corinne@511contracosta.org
