Global sales of electric car charging stations was just $69 million in 2010, but analysts predict the EV charging industry to swell to $1.1 billion by 2013 — and even though they won’t have any plug-in vehicles ready until 2012, the world’s largest automaker wants a piece of it.

Toyota and a growing number of electrical heavyweights including Siemens and GE are jumping into an industry of many small and medium-sized companies. And because of the sheer size, brand recognition and distribution networks that these new players bring to the table, the cottage industry surrounding electric car chargers is about to get a serious shock to its system.

“It will be a challenge for the smaller players to compete with the likes of GE and Siemens, which have extensive experience in reducing manufacturing costs as well as understanding of relationships in the building power market,” says John Gartner of cleantech research firm Pike Research in The Wall St. Journal.

Toyota’s electric car-charger, which will reportedly cost about two thousand dollars installed, won’t be available until 2012, when the plug-in hybrid Prius and a small all-electric car hit Japanese and U.S. markets. But with companies like GE planning to deliver its first charger, the WattStation (pictured above) this summer, and Siemens readying to launch their residential electric car charging solution, the Siemens Charge, later this year, a cramped market ecosystem consisting of start-ups and relative unknowns is about to get even more cramped, which is all good news for consumers as competition should drive charger prices down.

In the short term, the hope is that all these new chargers, networks and platforms — from companies like Ecotality, Coulomb, Better Place, NRG Energy, GridBot, Clipper Creek and Silver Spring Networks, along with those produced by larger companies like AeroVironment, makers of those nifty rooftop wind turbines and most of the U.S. military’s unmanned drone aircraft, Eaton, Leviton, and Schneider Electric, which just launched its own residential charger last week — will bring the price of residential chargers down into the $700 range. But in the longer term, not only will all that competition in an uncertain market drive charger price down, analysts also predict there will be an active merger and acquisition environment.

“Some of those companies that are early movers are going to find it difficult to survive. We think there will be some interesting merger and acquisition activity at the end of this year,” says Pike Research’s Gartner.

And with some big-time names now positioning themselves in the charging sector, it will be interesting to see how it all shakes out and which big names in electronics, energy management, electric utilities and vehicle manufacturing get into the charging business.

Article by Timothy B. Hurst, appearing courtesy Earth & Industry.

Related posts:

• EVs Getting Smarter Every Day
• Toyota to Launch Six New Hybrid Vehicles By End of 2012
• EV Charging Primed for Consolidation
• Tendril, Siemens Announce Partnership
• Meters Look to Put the Smarts in EV Charging

These are the days for clean tech observers and professionals. Our most innovative companies are finally bringing game-changing technologies to market and into competitive parity on cost. The political will that has been lacking for decades seems to be gaining critical mass. Even corporate America seems to be on board with making a profitable shift to a green economy.

Still, it’s not all rosy in the green tech picture. Getting climate change legislation through the house was a bloodsport and, as previously noted on the CleanTechies Blog, the Senate looks increasingly unlikely to put anything substantial on the President’s desk this year. And that is just the new policy. Around the country, existing policies designed to enable clean energy adoption are floundering, and even with all of the aforementioned momentum, in a down economy policy makers cannot afford too many false starts.

The problems are rearing their head in every arena, even the most well-established and widely-accepted policy areas like the Renewable Portfolio Standard and other green power option programs. Last week, Austin Energy, the Texas utility announced that it still had more than 97% (that is not a typo) of its green power option capacity unsold. They attributed the slow sales to rising prices and the down economy, but the wrinkle is in what happens next. Since the green power option is a regulator-approved program, Austin Energy is entitled to receive full compensation for the green power they had to go out and secure on the forward market, even if premium sales under the program do not cover that cost. That means that every ratepayer is on the hook for the cost.

This is just one example of the unintended consequences that can occur when we are so anxious to adopt green programs that we make policy on the fly. The same sort of problems have been reported by CleanTechies and other leading green media channels in recent weeks with public charging stations for plug-in EVs. On their face, the stations are good for everyone involved: the utilities like the demand, consumers like the convenience,  and manufacturers like that the stations enable even the less passionate consumer to seriously consider a plug-in, and cities like the proactive “green” positioning. But, no one wants to pay for the power. And, who owns the equipment? How will the system integrate with existing utility infrastructure?

This is not dissimilar from the hurdles facing large-scale integration of renewable power in the US. We have innovation and investment lined up around the block for mega-scale wind and solar, so why isn’t the clean power coming online? Transmission capacity is insufficient and we can’t get new lines built.

The US isn’t alone in confronting the transmission hurdle. A Reuters story reprinted in the Boston Globe last week discussed Greece’s problems with bringing renewables online. The problem in Greece? According to government officials quoted in the story, its policy:

“Greece is notorious for its long licensing procedure…estimated at three to four years on average. The government has just passed a zoning law for renewables as well as approved new incentives for individuals to install solar panels on rooftops and sell the electricity, doing away with a licensing process that used to cost thousands of euros. Within the next two months, it plans to submit a law to shorten procedures for wind farms and small hydroelectric plants.”

No telling where that process will go, or what the new policy will really mean for investment and adoption, but until then the country will continue to rely on power from dust and smoke spewing power plants run off of the lignite that is strip-mined from the Greek countryside.

An industry that has always been hamstrung by pie-in-the-sky aspirations is now being crippled by a failure to deliver on the nitty-gritty (which is not to say that pie-in-the-sky is not still pulling too much of the attention and investment).

Here’s hoping that some of clean tech’s brightest minds and greatest innovators of the next generation will put aside the quest for the next killer app and take up the challenge on the public policy side. If the climate change fight is as grave a challenge as advertised then it is not too strained a comparison to say that what clean tech needs now are the kind of understated heroes that emerged in the civil rights fights of the 50’s and 60’s. We have our MLKs and JFKs, what we need now is a Thurgood Marshall. Is she out there?

[photo credit: Flickr]

Related posts:

• It’s The Economy, Stupid
• How Many Jobs are Truly Created in a “Green Economy?”
• UN Report Says Economic Growth and Sustainability Critically Linked
• Where to Find Jobs in Energy Efficiency
• The Recovery Act: Laying the Foundation for a Clean Energy Economy

Exciting news yesterday from CleanTechies’ home city of San Francisco – mayor Gavin Newsom unveiled plug-in charging stations in front of City Hall.

These new stations are intended for the city’s municipal fleet and car share companies Zipcar and City Car Share. The Smartlet charging stations are on loan from Coloumb Technologies – the same company who has provided charging stations to the city of San Jose.

Mayor Newsom is bullish on hybrid and electric cars, from his blog posting announcing the installation:

“Our proactive residents are the country’s earliest adopters of green vehicles. We have the highest number of hybrid cars owners in the United States. Many believe that hybrid vehicles are the future — I believe that full battery electric vehicles are the quantum leap we need to make.

Related posts:

• Food Recycling Program A Major Success in San Francisco
• San Francisco Pledges Astounding 100% Green Energy by 2020
• Paris Calls for Bids to Run Electric Car Hire Scheme
• Live from Green Build 2010 in Chicago
• Catching up with the Nissan Leaf in San Francisco