Electric Vehicles

The EV Project is the largest deployment of electric vehicles and charge infrastructure in history.

In 2009, the Department of Energy granted over $99 million dollars to Ecotality to embark on the EV Project. Sullivan Solar Power's Electric Vehicle Team is working with Ecotality and Chevy through SPX to deploy electric vehicle charging stations at homes, business and municipalities in San Diego, Los Angeles and Orange County.

In June 2010, the Project was granted an additional $15 million by the U.S. Department of Energy. With partner contributions, the total value of the Project is over $200 million.

Sullivan Solar Power's Electric Vehicle Team will deploy chargers across Southern California. Chevrolet and Nissan North America are partners in The EV Project. Both Chevrolet Volt and Nissan LEAF drivers who qualify to participate in The EV Project will receive a residential charger at no cost. In addition, most, if not all of the installation cost, will be paid for by The EV Project.

The EV Project will collect and analyze data to characterize vehicle use in diverse topographic and climatic conditions, evaluate the effectiveness of charge infrastructure, and conduct trials of various revenue systems for commercial and public charge infrastructures. The ultimate goal of The EV Project is to take the lessons learned from the deployment of these first 8,300 EVs, and the charging infrastructure supporting them, to enable the streamlined deployment of the next 5,000,000 EVs.

In 2010, charging infrastructure will be deployed in the following major population areas: Phoenix (AZ), Tucson (AZ), San Diego (CA), San Francisco (CA), Los Angeles (CA), Portland (OR), Eugene (OR), Salem (OR), Corvallis (OR), Seattle (WA), Nashville (TN), Knoxville (TN), Memphis (TN) and Chattanooga (TN), Washington D.C., Dallas (TX), Fort Worth (TX), and Houston (TX).

The EV Project will qualify 8,300 LEAF and Volt customers for participation based upon home electrical power capabilities. Because a significant amount of vehicle charging will take place at EV driver residences, a portion of The EV Project funding supports home charging units, or more correctly called “Electric Vehicle Supply Equipment” (EVSE).

Participants will receive the home EVSE and up to a $1200 credit toward the installation in exchange for allowing the collection of vehicle and charge information at home and publicly available EVSE. This information will include data from both the vehicle and the EVSE, such as energy used and time and duration of charger use. No personal information will be shared or included in the data to be analyzed.

Charging your Electric Vehicle with Sullivan Solar Power

Powering your plug-in electric vehicle (PEV) provides substantial savings over purchasing gas. Consumer incentives are also making the purchase of an electric vehicle and home fast-charging station more affordable and attractive.

Filling up a PEV only costs a few cents per mile, versus an average of 20 cents per mile for gasoline per gallon. If the average American drives less than 40 miles a day, it will cost about $2 - $2.50 a day for electricity (depending on the vehicle).

You can go even cheaper with solar electricity, and know that you are fueling your vehicle with clean energy, as opposed to switching one fossil fuel for another (gasoline for coal powered electricity.

Fueling Your Vehicle - Gas Vs. Utility Electricity Vs. Solar Electricity

Gas Powered Avg. Miles Per Day: 40 Cost per Day:  $8.00 Cost per Month:  $243.20 Cost per Year:  $2,918.40 Avg. Cost per Mile:  $0.20

Utility Electricity Powered Avg. Miles Per Day: 40 Cost per Day:  $2.51 Cost per Month:  $76.30 Cost per Year:  $915.60 Avg. Cost per Mile:  $0.06

Solar Electricity Powered Avg. Miles Per Day: 40 Cost per Day:  $1.48 Cost per Month:  $44.99 Cost per Year:  $539.90 Avg. Cost per Mile:  $0.04

*Figures are based on an assumption of $4 per gallon gasoline and $0.20 per kWh average electricity rate

The average commuter will be saving about $2,000 per year in fuel costs by switching to a electric powered vehicle.

If you charge your electric vehicle with solar power, you save an additional 40% off the average utility electricity rate. It costs about $0.20 per mile to fuel the typical gas-powered vehicle ($4 per gallon), while it only costs $0.06 per mile to fuel the typical electric vehicle ($1.20 per gallon).

This is why thousands of homeowners with electric vehicles have installed solar energy systems to charge their vehicles, and often times the rest of their home as well.