by Brianna Crandall — February 17, 2014—Facilities managers who oversee their company’s fleets or who are looking into adding electric vehicle charging capabilities to their facilities to promote sustainability may be interested to learn that on February 6, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) welcomed the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR) and Sprint to the growing list of employers participating in the EV Everywhere Workplace Charging Challenge to help build the nation’s plug-in electric vehicle (PEV) charging infrastructure.
The Workplace Charging Challenge is a collaborative effort to increase the number of U.S. employers offering workplace charging by tenfold. The Challenge supports the broader efforts of the Department’s EV Everywhere Grand Challenge to make PEVs as affordable and convenient for Americans as gasoline-powered vehicles within the next 10 years.
Through the Workplace Charging Challenge, employers across the country are beginning to offer charging access in workplace lots. This availability can potentially double a PEV driver’s all-electric daily commuting range.
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As part of its commitment to the Workplace Charging Challenge, NASCAR unveiled five Eaton Level 2 electric vehicle (EV) charging stations at its Charlotte location, bringing the total number of EV charging stations to 20 across NASCAR facilities located in Daytona Beach, Concord, Charlotte and at Michigan International Speedway. The charging stations power electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles of NASCAR employees and guests.
Last year, NASCAR announced a partnership with the DOE to jointly promote clean, efficient energy technologies that strengthen U.S. competitiveness, with the hope of influencing other partners to follow its lead. The DOE recently announced a five-year partnership to continue the Green Racing initiative with the International Motor Sports Association, which is owned by NASCAR Holdings.
For its part, Sprint is installing an EV charging station in each of the 14 parking garages on its headquarters campus in Overland Park, Kansas. Each station will have the capability to charge two cars at once, and will be available to Sprint employees, contractors, campus tenants and visitors. Additionally, four of the stations, funded by Kansas City Power and Light, will be available for public use. Installation has already begun, and all of the stations should be ready to use by the end of March.
The Sprint stations are enabled by the company’s mobile broadband technology to monitor and control use. Sprint plans to work with ChargePoint, which the company says is the largest EV charging network in the nation, to bring this machine-to-machine (M2M) solution to other organizations that are seeking to install EV charging stations, as well.
Since most people park their vehicles for hours at a time while at work, these charging stations can potentially double PEV drivers’ all-electric driving range, points out the DOE.
More than 55 employers have already committed to the Workplace Charging Challenge, including a number of NASCAR Official Partners such as 3M, Coca-Cola Company, Ford Motor Company and General Motors.
