Awards to Coulomb Technologies and Better Place

Coulomb Technologies has become a premier provider of public charging stations worldwide with their ChargePoint® Networked Charging Stations for electric vehicles. Coulomb’s ChargePoint® Network, is open to all drivers of plug-in vehicles and provides authentication, management, and real-time control for the networked electric vehicle charging stations.

The company has more than 120 customers and is now selling charging stations to corporations and municipalities such as Element Hotels, Reliant Energy, and the City of Amsterdam. Coulomb has also worked closely with federal, state and local government officials and utility companies to promote policies that will make it easier for private and public providers to afford, install and operate publicly available Electric Car charging systems.

“Coulomb’s executives, led by co-founder and CEO Richard Lowenthal, are tireless advocates for publicly available charging, and we desperately need such effective advocates if we are to reduce global oil use for transportation in a meaningful way,” noted O’Dell.

Equally worthy of such praise is Better Place, an organization that has achieved remarkable early success in pursuing its goal of establishing swappable batteries and battery exchange stations as an industry standard.

“Better Place founder and CEO Shai Agassi continues building his case and early this year provided a solid demonstration of the company’s viability by announcing the successful completion of a $350 million private fundraising effort – one of the largest ever in the so-called green automotive world – led by London’s HSBC,” said O’Dell.

The Edmunds.com Green Car Breakthrough Award is provided annually to a vehicle, technology or program that sets new standards in fuel efficiency, emissions reduction and/or sustainability, or that stands out for promoting public use and acceptance of such a vehicle or technology.

This year’s runners-up are:

* Ford Motor Co. for its overall suite of green initiatives, including the development of the fuel efficient line of 4- and 6-cylinder EcoBoost engines, the launch of the Fusion hybrid and fuel efficient Transit Connect commercial van, industry-leading efforts to improve overall fleet fuel efficiency, increasing development and use of bio-plastics and other renewable materials in its vehicles, and the recent decision – despite a still weak economy – to pump $450 million into further electric vehicle R&D

* General Motors Corp.’s Voltec extended-range plug-in hybrid technology, which will debut late this year in the 2011 Chevrolet Volt

* Nissan Motor Corp. and its upcoming 2011 Nissan Leaf EV, the first modern mass-produced lithium ion batteries electric car, which goes into production later this year

Edmunds.com Inc. publishes four Web sites that empower, engage and educate automotive consumers, enthusiasts and insiders. Edmunds.com, the premier online resource for automotive information, launched in 1995 as the first automotive information Web site.

Its mobile site, accessible from any smart phone at www.edmunds.com, makes car pricing and other research tools available for car shoppers at dealerships and otherwise on the go. InsideLine.com is the most-read automotive enthusiast Web site. Its mobile site, accessible from any smartphone at www.insideline.com, features the wireless Web’s highest quality car photos and videos.