A new initiative by Coulomb Technologies aims to install 4,600 free electric vehicle (EV) charging stations in nine metropolitan areas around the US by September 2011 as part of its ChargePoint America program. The project will be supported by three automotive partners—Chevrolet, Ford, and Smart—to ensure the availability of electric vehicles in those nine regions in an attempt to solve the chicken-and-egg problem of developing a viable charging infrastructure.

Coulomb Technologies makes a line of ChargePoint networked EV charging stations, and also operates a network of stations for EV drivers to use to "fill up." The company will supply, free of charge, a total of 4,600 charging stations for installation in public spaces, businesses, and individual homes. Those charging stations will hopefully blanket the Austin, Detroit, Los Angeles, New York, Orlando, Sacramento, San Jose/San Francisco, Redmond, and Washington DC metropolitan areas, establishing a viable network for charging EVs.

The $37 million project is funded in part by a $15 million Department of Energy grant from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. "The Obama Administration has set significant and considerable goals for the widespread adoption of electric vehicles in the coming years," said Coulomb Technologies CEO Richard Lowenthal in a statement. "This grant will bring thousands of networked charging stations to nine US regions, will build upon our already growing and established network of infrastructure, and will accelerate the deployment of public and private charging infrastructure which will in turn encourage consumers to buy electric vehicles."

Part of the problem of establishing a network of EV charging stations is that there currently aren't enough EVs on the road to make building and supporting the charging stations economically viable. And without a network of charging stations available, it isn't feasible to drive an EV for much more than a relatively short urban commute.

That's why the ChargePoint America project is partnering with Chevy, Ford, and Smart. These automakers have committed to making the Chevy Volt, Ford Transit Connect, Ford Focus BEV, and Smart Fortwo electric cars available in all nine regions, thereby ensuring a supply of EVs to use the charging stations.

The networked ChargePoint charging stations can be configured to offer free charging, though they most will likely be configured to integrate with the ChargePoint FlexBill system for billing purposes. Businesses can request to have them installed on site, but individuals and governments can also request that they be installed in convenient public places as well. Individuals may also qualify to have a home charging station installed.

Coulomb Technologies plans to have at least 1,000 public charging stations in place by the end of the year, with the remainder installed before the end of 2011. Data about EV charging patterns will be collected from each station installed by the project, and analyzed by research groups from Purdue University and Idaho National Labs.