Electric Cars to Charge up in San Jose

Electric cars – one of the most promising hybrid cars being developed – are gaining favor with consumers.

There are a few hurdles yet to their being widely adopted, not the least of which is charging their batteries.

There are currently no public power sources to charge electric cars. In San Jose, California – a “hotbed” for green innovation – one company wants to change this.

Richard Lowenthal, CEO of start-up Coulomb Technologies in Campbell, California, already has an electric car. To charge it, he has to run long extension cords out to do so.

It’s a dilemma, he says. You can’t sell the cars without having accessible charging sites. But he has what may be a simple solution to the problem.

Lowenthal envisions creating charging stations on lamp posts, street lights and in parking lots, any of which would be readily accessible to electric car owners. Lowenthal sees San Jose as the beginning to what eventually would be a country-wide installation program.

San Jose has purchased a dozen car chargers, holding them for when electric cars are more commonly seen, when the “electric revolution” comes to the San Francisco Bay area. This is a first step towards turning this dream into reality.

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