Qualcomm Sees Opportunity in Electric Vehicle Charging

Qualcomm has formed a partnership with ECOtality to implement cellular connectivity into charging stations. The solution will allow ECOtality to use a commercial cellular network to manage its Blink brand charging station operations, transfer usage data, download firmware updates and publish availability to electric vehicle drivers in real time.


ECOtality plans to begin deploying cellular-enabled charging stations this year under the EV Project, a $230 million project involving the U.S. Department of Energy; ECOtality's subsidiary, ECOtality North America; and more than 40 project partners.


The EV Project is the largest deployment of electric vehicles and charging infrastructure in U.S. history, including up to 8,300 fully electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles and nearly 15,000 at-home and publicly available charging systems. All chargers to be deployed under this program, as well as those carrying ECOtality's recently unveiled Blink brand, will contain Qualcomm technology to communicate over cellular networks.
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