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Best Buy Getting Electric Car Charging Stations

- By - Source : Tom's Guide US

Get your car topped up while you shop for that next HDTV.

A big help in getting electric vehicles to gain acceptance is more charging stations. While we see gas stations all along the road, an EV owner will probably need plan out his or her trip entirely around how long it'll take before it's garage time again.

Charging stations outside of home will go a long way to helping electric cars gain traction. The latest announcement comes from ECOtality, which as agreement to provide Blink electric vehicle charging stations at select U.S. Best Buy stores.

Blink EV charging stations will be installed at 12 select Best Buy stores in Tucson, Ariz., Phoenix, Ariz., Los Angeles, Calif., San Diego, Calif., and Seattle, Wash. Charging stations at these stores, within pilot markets of The EV Project, will be installed by March 2011.

“As the private sector will ultimately drive consumer electric vehicle adoption, our goal has been to establish a charging network that is conveniently placed in familiar places to meet consumers’ needs. Aligning ourselves with major retailers is a key part of achieving that goal,” said Jonathan Read, CEO of ECOtality, Inc. “Blink is about charging where you live, work and play—it’s about making the electric vehicle lifestyle fit the lifestyle of drivers nationwide. In order for EV infrastructure to be a success, it is essential that private enterprises take an active role. Best Buy has shown true leadership as becoming a launch partner for The EV Project and exemplifies how corporate responsibility initiatives can directly benefit the customer experience, environment and society.”

As part of the agreement, ECOtality will initially install Blink chargers at 12 strategic Best Buy locations as part of the pilot program. Throughout the experiment, ECOtality will analyze real-world experiences of EV users to continually develop best-practices for creating EV infrastructure in a variety of regions. The data gathered from the Blink EV charging stations at the 12 Best Buy stores will provide a characterization of consumer charging behavior and identify potential incentives for EV host sites. Contingent upon the findings of the pilot program, ECOtality and Best Buy may expand the installation of Blink charging stations to include other store locations.

Now you can get your car charged while you're buying something from Best Buy, or getting some food from McDonald's.

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Marco925 10/13/2010 3:11 PM
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is it free? How much would it cost?

christop 10/13/2010 3:13 PM
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My guess the price will be high like the Geek squad high school repair guys.

g00fysmiley 10/13/2010 3:24 PM
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interesting... but a few quetions immediatly pop into mind

1st will they charge $ to charge which i am assuming is a probably

2nd if you don't pay to charge will it be some kind of govement paid for thing as i doubt private buisnesses are goign to be willing to pay for your cars power...and i don't want my tax dollars going to supliment thier "fuel"

3rd given the locations i can see people vandilizing and/or destroying these will they be locked or otherwise protected... if it s pole out the ground with a plug i forsee gum being jammed in em, cords cut, and mayeb even more malicious things happening...

good concept might work but there's alot of what ifs

KingArcher 10/13/2010 3:40 PM
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How about the amount of time it takes to recharge?
You're not going to window-shop/hang-out until its charged are you?

scook9 10/13/2010 3:41 PM
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Also, how long is it going to take to charge a car? Will it even be practical to charge for just a half hour while shopping?

scook9 10/13/2010 3:41 PM
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KingArcher :
How about the amount of time it takes to recharge?You're not going to window-shop/hang-out until its charged are you?


Just beat me to it haha, I thumbed ya ;)

Regulas 10/13/2010 3:44 PM
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I can bet before it's over with they will make it so you can not plug it into your wall socket. they will figure some way to milk cash from you to charge it by monitoring you. Attach a special power adapter to your electric supply that will enable the government to add their extra charging taxes and such.
Mark my words.

9d3tsi 10/13/2010 3:53 PM
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Just because you plug it in to a wall, doesn't mean its "clean energy". Isn't coal and other fossil fuels still used to produce electricity? So where's the win? Not to mention.... What does this do to eveyone's electric bill?

rubix_1011 10/13/2010 3:56 PM
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I have to completely agree with 9d3tsi...I was going to say exactly the same thing. Just because its an 'electric car' the electricity still comes from BURNING TONS OF FOSSIL FUELS TO MAKE ENERGY. It's a displacement of energy, and not any more 'green' than a gas or diesel car...likely less.

tommysch 10/13/2010 4:03 PM
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Will they try to sell you a 250$ 5 ft HDMI 1.4 cable to plug your car?

shortbus25 10/13/2010 4:11 PM
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So we will take all the fuel these cars are not burning, and use it to make electricity instead, so that we will still pollute, and still continue to use oil from other countries, and still deplete resources. Really nothing is going to change I wonder how much more efficient it is to pollute making electricity than driving gasoline powered vehicles? Until we run out of it we'll keep using it and keep polluting, so would it not be more beneficial to just figure out a way to completely do everything without fossil fuel! I'm just saying...

shortbus25 10/13/2010 4:13 PM
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xl3tiger 10/13/2010 4:25 PM
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if best buy use solar panels to feed thier electrical station it will be awesome. the initiatiave is good.

mr_tuel 10/13/2010 4:28 PM
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shortbus25 :
I wonder if anyone stop to think that its not the pollution thats causing global warming but the reduction of weight inside the earths core making it wobble more causing the temp spikes around the world?

...and how is the earth's core loosing mass? Fossil fuels are only located within the crust, hundreds (if not thousands) of miles from the core. Plate tectonics cause the crust to become the mantle, and the mantle to become crust. Its cyclical. If I am not mistaken,. The crust itself just stays there mostly, and will continue to exist in its state for another few billion years.

I won't argue the ecological side of this, but we will eventually run out of fossil fuels. As long as we can produce electricity with dams, wind, solar, geothermal, nuclear, fusion, etc, it is the way to go.

mr_tuel 10/13/2010 4:29 PM
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EDIT: "The crust itself just stays there mostly, and will continue to exist in its state for another few billion years." I meant to say the core just stays there

tommysch 10/13/2010 4:42 PM
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shortbus25 :
I wonder if anyone stop to think that its not the pollution thats causing global warming but the reduction of weight inside the earths core making it wobble more causing the temp spikes around the world?



WTF? You must be an American...

Zoidman 10/13/2010 4:48 PM
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What would be interesting would be if the Geek Squad vehicle switch over to EV's and used the Best Buy as the base station for charging. If it went well, I could see chargers easily spread to all Best Buys, and really increase the network of charging locations for the normal consumer to actually drive places, and not worry quite so much as they do now as to where they will get their next charge.

spectrewind 10/13/2010 4:50 PM
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9d3tsi :
Just because you plug it in to a wall, doesn't mean its "clean energy". Isn't coal and other fossil fuels still used to produce electricity? So where's the win? Not to mention.... What does this do to eveyone's electric bill?



We are hydro-electric out here (USA WA/OR/ID). Wind turbine generators are also popping up, LOTS of them.
There's the win.

PreciousL 10/13/2010 5:02 PM
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I hear GeekSquad will update the firmware for your car for $30. :)

cp8427 10/13/2010 5:41 PM
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Dumb idea. Just leave it to gas store owners to install a blink charging station.

rohitbaran 10/13/2010 5:42 PM
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Marco925 :
is it free? How much would it cost?


So, after hearing them to be charging for PS3 update, you expect this to be free? I don't.

eddieroolz 10/13/2010 6:09 PM
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TommySch :
Will they try to sell you a 250$ 5 ft HDMI 1.4 cable to plug your car?



Worse yet, a Monster Platium Premium Super Duper Awesome Charging Cable for $500.

JOSHSKORN 10/13/2010 6:12 PM
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Marco925 :
is it free? How much would it cost?


Do you get a monthly electric bill? I don't see the difference. So it most likely would cost standard electricity rates, plus whatever is factored in with the cost of the service.

gorillateets 10/13/2010 6:25 PM
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They'd have to use a cable wrapped in a protective flexible tough metal to avoid tampering with and use a mechanism that prevents the plug from being destroyed when some idiot drives off with the car still plugged in. The idea sounds nice, but in real world scenarios I'm sure people will charge at home and save themselves the trouble. These charging stations will have to cost a small fortune mostly because of how long your car will have to sit there charging and the next guy is waiting on you to be done. I can't imagine this working unless at least half of the parking lot had these stations, not just two or three.

captainnemojr 10/13/2010 7:29 PM
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The catch is you have to have a Geek Squad member plug in your car for you.

captainnemojr 10/13/2010 8:12 PM
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mr_tuel :
...and how is the earth's core loosing mass? Fossil fuels are only located within the crust, hundreds (if not thousands) of miles from the core. Plate tectonics cause the crust to become the mantle, and the mantle to become crust. Its cyclical. If I am not mistaken,. The crust itself just stays there mostly, and will continue to exist in its state for another few billion years.I won't argue the ecological side of this, but we will eventually run out of fossil fuels. As long as we can produce electricity with dams, wind, solar, geothermal, nuclear, fusion, etc, it is the way to go.



Also, it's the moon that keeps the earth from wobbling much at all. I just watched that on the Science Channel. We will wobble more as the moon moves further away, but we're good to go for another billion years or so.

I'd love to see fusion power.

WheelsOfConfusion 10/13/2010 8:36 PM
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[citation][nom]9d3tsi[/nom]Just because you plug it in to a wall, doesn't mean its "clean energy". Isn't coal and other fossil fuels still used to produce electricity?[/quote]
First of all, getting power into a battery from the electrical grid is still more efficient than having an on-board Internal Combustion Engine. Secondly, the precise mix of fossil fuels to alternatives in the grid depends on where you are. (Link for those of us in the US) Me, I get significantly more nuke-born power than the national average, so the overall NOx and CO2 emissions are lower for electrical power here than the national average anyway.

jalek 10/14/2010 1:16 AM
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Dams are going the way of nuclear plants in the US, they kill fish you know. Wind turbines kill birds. Wave turbines kill lots of marine life. Solar kills things that get too close to the concentrator.

Soon we'll be trying to find ways of heating our caves without using fire.

supertrek32 10/14/2010 1:54 AM
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KingArcher :
How about the amount of time it takes to recharge?You're not going to window-shop/hang-out until its charged are you?


The idea is to have them all over. In the ideal world, there would be one at almost every place you drive to. If you drive for 30 minutes to reach the store (best buy, in this case - they're just one of the first adopters), the time you spend in the store should be plenty. The idea isn't to charge your car from 0, it's to maintain your charge from stop to stop.

supertrek32 10/14/2010 2:22 AM
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9d3tsi :
Just because you plug it in to a wall, doesn't mean its "clean energy". Isn't coal and other fossil fuels still used to produce electricity? So where's the win? Not to mention.... What does this do to eveyone's electric bill?

rubix_1011 :
I have to completely agree with 9d3tsi...I was going to say exactly the same thing. Just because its an 'electric car' the electricity still comes from BURNING TONS OF FOSSIL FUELS TO MAKE ENERGY. It's a displacement of energy, and not any more 'green' than a gas or diesel car...likely less.



First and foremost, coal is much more abundant and much easier to gather There's also an ample supply of coal in the US, as opposed to oil which we have little of. So coal will always be cheaper.

Second, electric cars release less CO2 per mile than gasoline powered cars. In a comparison of the Toyota RAV4 and it's all-electric brother, the RAV4 EV, the EV puts out around 60% of the CO2 of the gas-powered car. It's important to remember that coal isn't the only fuel used at power plants. (source:http://forums.treehugger.com/viewtopic.php?t=1034)

Third, and most importantly, electric cars will only get better with time, where as gas cars are going downhill. Electric cars are getting more and more efficient by leaps and bounds while gas cars progress slowly. That means fewer and fewer emissions. Power generation is also improving, and we'll always be able to make electricity through nuclear, solar, hydro, and wind generation. We won't have gas around for much longer.

f-14 10/14/2010 3:29 AM
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yes i wonder if it will be a meter type deal, and where are they going to park as it will have to be some place in view of cameras and security staff, will it displace the handicapped parking? what happens if it's raining while your plugged in and you go to disconnect/connect it? i know this is southwestern usa but i am really wondering how snow and sleet will play in that scenario also. i'm just going to assume it's like current tech is and you still get shocked even with a gfi, but will the amps/voltage be so high even that fraction of a milisecond would be enought o kill some one. hope they protect the charging stations like they do gas pumps to keep drunks and retards from running them over.

TommySch :
WTF? You must be an American...


lmfao too funny. i find it funny how a planet that continually gets warm then goes into an ice age over and over and over as more proof that even an american whack job is smarter to not trust a few thousand current sceintist who think they have figured out the universe let alone mother nature in the last 50 years. they can't even tell us how hot it got before triggering the last few ice ages let alone what caused them, dinosaurs were warm blooded and lived all over every continent including antartica, i think that is a clue sceintist have been expriementing with the mary jane way too much which i might add contributes to global warming, since a butterfly flapping it's wings in china causes hurricane katrina here in the united states. oh please vulcanologist acknowledge 1 volcanic eruption does more damage then human being have done in their entire existance. think of what the super volcano that makes up a big part of yosemite national park has done, you need to be in outerspace to even see it, it's so huge.