You’ve plugged in the car and are home having dinner. Without getting up from the table, your cellphone can tell you the status of the recharging and your current range, if, say, you have to unplug it to make a quick trip to get milk for your morning cereal and coffee.
Another scenario — At breakfast, you tell your cellphone to activate the climate control and begin heating or cooling the electric Smartfortwo. And, of course, you can check the charging status from your overnight plug-in, when electricity rates are lower.
General Motors is expected to have a similar software for its PHEV Chevrolet Volt. That announcement is expected at the Detroit Auto Show in January, 2010.
The EV Smartfortwo is the perfect city car. Small enough to fit in any parking space., and when fully charged, it has a range of just under 100 miles, enough for daily commuting for most of us. And it re-charges easily. Just plug it in overnight to any household socket or a wall box in the garage, and you’re ready to go again in the morning.
Mercedes is working with utilities in Germany to provide public EV charging stations on the street and in shopping centers to make electric car chaging more accessible. Let’s be real — we can’t have more electric cars without more places and ways to recharge them easily.
Nissan, which is due to launch the plug-in electric Nissan Leaf in 2010, also is working with utilities and gas stations to build public EV charging stations.
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