EV4 Oregon lands grant to refine electric vehicle charging technology

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EV4 Oregon landed a Drive Oregon grant to refine its fast-charging technology in partnership with Powin Energy and OpConnect. 

Drive Oregon announced this week a $42,000 matching grant to EV4 Oregon to help the company complete a pilot project to produce and install a new breed of EV charging station in Tualatin.

The EV4 Oregon station, known as an ETM — a quirky play on ATM that stands for "energy transfer merchant" — is partly powered by solar and will allow DC quick charging in areas with a limited connection to the electrical grid.

Instead of using just electricity to charge up, ETM pairs EV4 Oregon’s newly developed fast-charger with energy collected through a solar canopy to charge a battery. That battery fuels EVs, acting as a buffer to the grid and reducing charging demands. The system is being developed in partnership with Powin Energy and with OpConnect, which also provides slow chargers to the ETM stations.

“In a nutshell, Powin Energy is developing for me the battery system that goes along with this charging station. And OpConnect, I use their level-two charger,” said Hans van der Meer, president and CEO of EV4.

Van der Meer said the integration of the components, along with their local production, “sets this unit apart from other charging stations currently being deployed.”

Jeff Allen, executive director of Drive Oregon, a state-funded electric vehicle industry support group, said there were several things the Drive Oregon board liked about the proposal.

“One is that I think the technology is extremely interesting and could have a really substantial market,” he said.

Next, he said, is that “it basically allows for DC quick-charging in places that don’t have the grid capacity to allow it otherwise.”