Zoomi Life

California company EVOASIS has announced that they’ll be rolling out a pilot network of electric vehicle charging stations in the London metro area. The stations will be styled after the iconic red phone booths of London (I prefer to call them “Dr. Who Booths”) and will be capable of charging up to 12 vehicles per booth.

This new system is called the R2G (Red 2 Green) retrofit and is a collaboration between EVOASIS and Chroma ATE—a Taiwanese company that also supplies components to Tesla Motors. Chroma will supply the diagnostic hardware and firmware, which they’re calling EVSTAT. This includes a video display that their child company Dynascan Technology makes—a 360-degree LED in/outdoor video screen.

Basically, this means that while you’re plugged in and charging, you can sit and watch various ”green partner” videos and public awareness campaigns. The R2G name comes from London’s famous red buses and tube service and, of course, green for environment.  Catchy.

The pilot system in London will roll out later this year, probably this fall, with twelve stations (called UpStarts) in each of five boroughs. That means 60 stations total that can charge 12 vehicles each, making 720 cars. Nice!

Other services are available beyond just plugging in to recharge. Things like on-site auto diagnostics, battery chemistry sensing, and content delivery for on-board systems like MP3 stereos and TiVO systems.

The system is built to accommodate the owner-operator EV, but is especially well suited for rental and shared fleets, which are fairly common in London. Through the system, rental fleets can track their vehicles, upgrade or auto-diagnose problems the driver may not be aware of, and so forth.

The EVOASIS can even narc on cars that need battery upgrades, warranty service, and whatever to the manufacturer, dealership, or liability insurer.

EVOASIS is based in both San Diego, California and London, UK. Between now and 2012, they will be rolling out similar systems throughout North America, Mexico, South America, the European Union, and Asia. I hope they stay with the Dr. Who Phone Booth theme.