Toyota Motor Corporation and Toyota Media Service showed their jointly developed G-Station, a charging stand for electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles, at the Smart Grid Exhibition 2011.

G-Station verifies and communicates via a non-contact IC card, and then can connect to Toyota’s own Toyota Smart Center energy management system via the Internet.

“G-Station is a regular 200V charging device, and is a system that can only be used by pre-registered users. Since users are pre-registered, it is set up to send the charge start and end times to the customer by email, and the customer does not have to be present during charging.”

G-Station is compatible with major Japanese EV and PHV charging systems, and it is not restricted to only working with Toyota vehicles. There are two types, the regular grade Type A, as well as the more sophisticated Type B. They are priced at 280,000 yen and 448,000 yen respectively.

“Type A is for general use and is priced very low. That is a result of exhaustive cost reductions in order to help plug-in hybrids and electric vehicles to spread widely. Type B includes an LCD monitor, and a cable winder to help store the cables without users getting their hands dirty.”

Monitoring personnel can check each user’s history of use, assess fees in accordance with the number and length of time used, award points, and remotely monitor the operating condition of the G-Station.

“In the future these will be available for purchase at Toyota dealerships, and we will promote them to supermarkets, shopping malls, clubs and other public facilities as well.”

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