DOE hands eTec $100M for electric car charging stations

The Electric Transportation Engineering Corporation (eTec), has received a grant of $99.8 million from the Department of Energy to make widespread electric vehicles and the requisite charging station infrastructure a reality.

Needless to say, this is a formidable task — but eTec bring relevant experience to the task. As a long-time partner with Nissan North America, the company worked to get the car giant’s electric model (the zero-emission LEAF) into marketable shape. Setting the stage for its launch next year, eTec has also conducted extensive studies on the five-passenger LEAF models to fine-tune vehicle electric charging stations able to be used by a range of cars.

It’s new charge is to oversee the installation of enough charging infrastructure to support 1,000 of Nissan’s vehicles in each of the following states: Arizona, California, Oregon, Tennessee and Washington. This first pilot program of 1,000 cars is meant to pave the way for a much larger roll out of 5,000 and eventually 5 million, Nissan says — not to mention an initial 12,800 charging stations. Each LEAF can travel about 100 miles on a full charge. In order to keep collecting data after the cars hit the field, Nissan will offer customers willing to share data a free charger (retails for $500) for their homes.

The eTec grant has broader significance because the company could define the way others like it roll out their brands of electric vehicle charge infrastructure. Ultimately, all of these systems will need to work together in a coherent way and will need to be able to service a diverse range of vehicles. Companies like Coulomb Technologies and Better Place are already establishing their own versions of this technology in the field. Whether or not they will be influenced by eTec’s operations remains to be seen. For now, there is enough room in the market to accommodate the competitors, but more likely than not, they will need to find a way to collaborate before electric vehicles can rule the roads.

Based in Scottsdale, Ariz., eTec is a subsidiary of Ecotality. The money it received from the DOE is coming out of the $2.4 billion in stimulus funds earmarked for advanced battery and vehicle technology. The Obama administration announced the recipients of the grant money yesterday. But eTec is fairly unique among those named. Most were battery and drive train makers, not infrastructure or charging companies, even though the technology is complementary.

One of the major goals of the stimulus package in this area is the create green jobs. eTec says that its EV infrastructure project alone could create 750 new jobs across the country by 2012, and 5,500 jobs by 2017.

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