Car Charging Group Inc. announced it plans to deploy Level 3 fast charging stations capable of fully charging an electric vehicle in 30 minutes or less. The charging stations, designed by Coulomb Technologies, in partnership with Aker-Wade Power Technologies, will be similar to gas pump type-charging stations in existence today, but will be powered by dedicated 480-volt, 125-amp circuits, which will provide for much more rapid charging. The availability of Level 3 charging will be an important step in bringing clean, emission-free electric vehicles to the mainstream.

"Charging at 480 volts will reduce charging times from as long as overnight to less than an hour, perhaps as little as 15 minutes," said Andy Kinard, president of Car Charging Group. "Fifteen minutes is only slightly longer than it takes to fill up a tank with gasoline."

Charging stations that provide 240 volts, called Level 2 chargers, can take less than half the charging time of 120-volt outlets, or Level 1 chargers. Typically, an 8- to-10-kilowatt battery needs three or four hours at Level 2 to be completely charged.

"Major automakers, such as Nissan, GM, Ford, Tesla, & Fisker, as well as many others are answering consumer demand for greener cars and are rolling out new models as early as this year. We believe that if these automakers can eliminate the largest obstacle facing the industry -- range anxiety -- electric vehicles could reach a mainstream market quickly. However, a conventional charger can take eight or more hours to charge an electric car, depending on the battery," said Kinard. "The deployment of faster and more efficient charging stations that eliminate range anxiety are necessary in order to ensure the adoption of the estimated 40 million plug-in electric vehicles expected on the roads by 2030 according to a study on the PHEV market conducted by the National Academy of Sciences."

Car Charging Group is in the business of owning, providing and servicing electric car charging stations in designated parking areas of public and private property, such as multi family residential and commercial buildings, parking garages, municipalities, sporting venues and other convenient charging locations.

"Car Charging strives to provide the ability for the electric vehicle owner to have charging services in public areas," said Kinard. "The addition of a stand-alone gas pump-type station that has a comparable charge time to traditional gasoline fueling will create a revenue stream for gas station owners and better accommodate urban areas with little or no off-street parking." It is anticipated that the level 3 charging stations will be available in third quarter of 2010.