Japanese Vending Machines Connect With Electric Car Chargers

Vending machines in Japan will now offer not just candy bars, chips, and soda, but also electric car chargers.

According to an AFP report, ten Japanese companies recently announced plans to install 10,000 electric vehicle chargers at vending machine sites in the first year of their project.

One of the companies is Forking Co., a large vending machine operator tied to companies that own half of the nation’s vending machines -- 1.2 million machines. According to The Nikkei, Forking Co. will offer free lease of a charging station for every two vending machines. They will be installed for free and serviced by the involved companies.

SoftBank Telecom and SoftBank Mobile will provide communications services for the charging systems.

Electric car skeptics often argue that cars will run out of juice before reaching another charging site. The rollout of new charging locations is a proactive way for electric carmakers to address this concern. Unique charging ideas are now popping up around the U.S. as well.

Cracker Barrel, a restaurant and store chain proud of its old-fashioned style, has recently launched a pilot project to install electric vehicle chargers at 24 Tennessee restaurants. McDonalds unveiled one of their first restaurants with a car charging station back in 2009. Half-Price Books installed Dallas-Forth Worth’s first station last year, and encouraged drivers to shop while waiting for the charger. Starwood Hotels offers charging stations at some of their Element hotel sites.

Many environmentalists are heralding the vending machine/charging station as a positive step for the green movement. But it is worth considering whether it is appropriate to pair a green technology with devices that are known to dispense plastic-wrapped processed food and contribute to the 50 billion plastic bottles wasted in the U.S. alone per year. What do you think -- is this pairing innovative or contradictory?

Comments

[slider79]

11:20 PM on 04/26/2011

Great, electric power. Where does that come from? Here in the US, it comes from mostly coal fired plants. In Appalachia, where mountaintop removal coal extraction is destroying mountains and lives, this will not be good. If this electric power is coming from either nuclear or coal, its not much of an improvement.

[ontariogirl]

06:37 PM on 03/11/2011

You will be charged by Forking Co..... LOL OK am I the only one who is laughing.......

[ontariogirl]

06:36 PM on 03/11/2011

Forking Co.!!! Are you kidding me??? LOL OK so I digress........its Friday after all.

[butchcliff]

01:35 PM on 03/10/2011

Always wondered where one might easily charge your electric car when you're out
& about other than charging stations. Japanese first with innovation on this one.

[Eleanor of Aquitaine]

07:46 PM on 03/10/2011

First? Not really. My public library has a charging station in the parking lot. It's been there for years. We have stations like this at libraries across Los Angeles.

[butchcliff]

07:44 AM on 03/11/2011

With respect.. 'Other than charging stations'. These things could put put everywhere,
& more easily located, even out on the hwys

[John02050]

05:00 PM on 03/09/2011

The infrastructure of an electric-only economy is impossible. That is the problem with electricity. There are not enough REMs to make the batteries powering all this electric stuff people are envisioning.

Add to that the fact photovoltaic panels and large windmills also both require REMs.

Add to that fact China owning the supply of REMs.

There is no way to physically build this infrastructure for everybody.

People need to adjust to a low-energy economy, mainly one in which they do not possess the energy to propel themselves in any direction at 50 mph.

The basic infrastructure of a low-energy economy are public maglev rail for distance travel, local public transit powered by biofuels generated from waste, bicycling, local food production, nearby access to jobs and work, rainwater collection and recycling, dual solar thermal/waste biofuel home heating, water heating, and cooking, local or on-site wind, river (not dams), and tidal power.

Continued growth cannot occur in a personal transport-based model.

[John02050]

01:16 PM on 03/09/2011

Ha ha. People are so stupid. It doesn't matter how they're powered, it's overt car use creating the problem.

Until vehicles are built from cannabis and powered by farts (which is actually possible using current technology) they are by definition not sustainable and therefore no variation of them can be considered 'green'.

[cj7874]

05:39 PM on 03/11/2011

F&F!

[rickt123]

06:06 PM on 03/11/2011

very cool.

[logicanada]

01:07 PM on 03/09/2011

The amount of travel by car is increasing, leading to a range of problems. According to the National Travel Survey (NTS) (Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions, 1999) a quarter of all car trips are less than two miles long and more than half are less than five miles. There-is scope to transfer many of'these trips to the less-damaging modes of walk, cycle and public transport (particularly bus).

http://www.etcproceedings.org/paper/how-to-reduce-the-number-of-short-trips-by-car.

Time to walk or cycle maybe?

[logicanada]

01:01 PM on 03/09/2011

Good way to turn a sleek little Nissan into a lumbering lazy Cadillac.

[farmilyman]

11:07 AM on 03/09/2011

They need to invent portable chargers so that you can recharge your car from your apartment or take it with you into a hotel room when traveling.

[jfair80]

08:49 AM on 03/09/2011

What a great environmental solution from the land of the vending machine.

[peowlemeow]

08:40 PM on 03/08/2011

Putting green enterprises next to not so green products is ok.The vendors might recycle more.
the Japanese have got to be anxious about marketing this to China and India.
America is getting dusted in the green energy arena.

[MontanaMan]

08:23 PM on 03/08/2011

Do you get the idea the rest of the world is passing us by with green technology and more far sighted leadership regarding energy and technology. Although they do not enjoy best form of governments to be sure, our leaders in congress who could use a little vision refuse to get off the corporate dime, thanks in large part to the oil and coal lobbies, who don't necessarily want green technology as a competitor just yet.

Eighty percent of wind technology comes from China, both in production and being put into use...something we could easily be producing and using and should. This would create jobs while moving our country forward to a cleaner future. While we waste away fighting in Afghanistan, China is mining copper from the same country and making a fortune.

I realized we have people making these same efforts on many fronts, but in small increments rather than large ones. Those who would hold us back for corporate gain are doing a splendid job.

[GreenKate]

05:10 AM on 03/09/2011

I agree the vested interests have obstructed progress to protect their profits. Back in the 1990s I got to drive an electric car - I would have liked to buy one but they vanished off the market.

Every policy we have, including the wars, is about making billions for the few. That's all we stand for now.

[Bill USA]

07:26 PM on 03/08/2011

Nissan says it will take about 4 hrs to get a full charge for the Leaf. My question is, if you are charging your car at public charging station, what do you do while the car is charging?

[MagicalPossibilities]

10:51 PM on 03/08/2011

That is why I can't see myself getting an electric car unless they get to the point where they can go many more miles on a charge. How do you take a road trip? I think they only get like 70 miles to the charge.

[UpBone]

12:49 AM on 03/09/2011

40...

[David Christensen]

07:10 PM on 03/08/2011

People around the world just don't understand how convenient things are in Japan. You can pay all (and I do mean ALL) your bills at any random corner store. Forget on-line accounts and passwords, just run down to 7-11 and pay with cash if you want. You can even buy a plane ticket that way.

[peowlemeow]

08:40 PM on 03/08/2011

That sounds awesome.

[Ron Quintia]

06:31 PM on 03/08/2011

...leave it to the Japanese..ever inventive and forward thinking...there used to be a country half way around the world that used to be like that...it seems that country has lost it's way...more concerned about fanatic religious beliefs that they would like the entire planet to embrace..completely giving up on education, the arts and science...ever paranoid about everyone that's different...even hating the elected leader of the that once amazing country because he is black..spreading innuendo and lies about his place of birth, his religion and his running of the country...mostly because he is black...what happened to that place?.. and how did it manage to get so far left behind..??...just wonderin!!