ReachNow installs 20 public EV charging stations in Seattle

BMW’s ReachNow car-sharing service has installed the first of 20 Light & Charge electric vehicle (EV) charging locations in Seattle, US, as part of a US$1.2 million investment by the BMW Group. Seattle is the first city in North America to make the award-winning Light & Charge system, which turns existing streetlights into EV charging stations, available to the public.
May 23, 2017 Read time: 2 mins
BMW’s ReachNow car-sharing service has installed the first of 20 Light & Charge electric vehicle (EV) charging locations in Seattle, US, as part of a US$1.2 million investment by the BMW Group. Seattle is the first city in North America to make the award-winning Light & Charge system, which turns existing streetlights into EV charging stations, available to the public.


The Light & Charge system, developed by BMW together with its partner, eluminocity US, transforms existing street and parking lot light poles into connected nodes on a smart city network. The system combines LED lighting, EV charging and a sensor bus that senses various parameters and connects the site to the cloud. The sensor bus also provides edge-computing power for other connected devices nearby.

In Seattle, each Light & Charge site will include one ChargePoint DC Fast Charger and two to four AC, Level II chargers. The chargers all run on the ChargePoint network and will all be available to the public and compatible with any EV that has a standard SAE J1772 charging port.

The addition of Light & Charge stations in Seattle will also allow ReachNow to expand its shared fleet of EVs. Today, the electric BMW i3 vehicle makes up 10 per cent of the total ReachNow fleet and, with less than a year on the road, ReachNow’s shared electric fleet claims to have saved more than 55 tons of CO2 emissions.

Related Content

  • Opening the closed-loop to realise ITS benefits
    April 8, 2014
    Jim Leslie, manager of ITS applications engineering at the Econolite Group looks at practical steps in transitioning from closed-loop masters to a centralised ATMS. Not many years ago the standard method of coordinating signalised intersections in local areas was to install an on-street master – each of which monitored and controlled a limited number of signal controllers or intersections as a closed-loop system. And, to a certain extent, each closed-loop system was autonomous from others deployed by the ag
    Read More
  • Making ITS connections requires leadership
    January 23, 2020
    From making the commute more bearable to saving the planet, Jim Alfred of BlackBerry Certicom believes that ITS has the capacity to drive a range of transformational opportunities – but leadership is required, he warns
    Read More
  • Swiftmile e-scooter hubs arrive in Miami 
    June 24, 2021
    Swiftmile says it hopes to roll out 100 charging hubs for 800 vehicles by end of 2022 
    Read More
  • Additional functionality gives loops a continued lease of life
    March 20, 2014
    Two decades after the death of the inductive loops was predicted, Matt Zinn, technical services manager at Eberle Design says the technology still offers advantages. More than 20 years ago the emergence of video detection systems led many to foretell the end of inductive loops. In the intervening years advocates of radar, infrared and wireless detection technologies have also claimed that loops were on their way out. But in fact, by all calculations, the use of loops has actually increased and although
    Read More

Highlighted Content