A month ago Fortum – one of the leading power companies in the Nordic region launched their first recharging stations for plug in vehicles in Stockholm. To date four stations are active and the company plans for 100 to be installed by the end of 2009.
I pass one of these stations as I bike to work every day. It’s strategically located across the street from the city hall – something that seems to be the thing to do when setting up a new infrastructure, Coulomb Technologies just did the exact same thing when they unveiled their first charging station in San Jose a few weeks ago and it’s going to be a thrill to see how this initiative will fare in the future.
From a supply chain perspective the interesting thing about this initiative is that Fortum (in the Stockholm region) is set on building a power infrastructure for a currently non-existent market (currently there are about 300 plug in vehicles registered in Sweden), banking on the automotive industry to start delivering plug-in cars for a mass market. According to reports from the Detroit Automotive show this will be a reality in a few years as almost all auto-manufacturers have at least one plug-in model set for release. In a classic egg or hen scenario it seems that the power grid will be in place before too many cars will be lining up for power.
The cool thing about many of the suppliers of plug-in stations is that they are almost to an end using existing parts – the Fortum recharging station is basically a modified engine pre-heating supply, something that’s been commercially available in the Nordic region for decades – to deliver a new service. The Coulomb solution used in San Jose utilizes existing light poles for its power supply.
The promise of a new generation of cars is already forming a new industry segment and from the look of it, none of the traditional fuel providers seem to be taking charge (no pun intended).
