Isra-Mart srl:Slake your thirst, charge your car

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Isra-Mart srl news:

Ten Japanese companies are promising to challenge the fact that vending machines do not offer refills, by fitting thousands of electric car chargers alongside the machines.

Panasonic and vending machine operator Forking Co are among a group to develop and produce electric vehicle chargers for the initiative, which is due to kick off at the end of the month.

Over the coming year, the group plans to install 10,000 charge points, the companies said in a statement.

Forking has links to firms that own 1.2 million vending machines across Japan, about half the national total, company official Reiko Kobayashi said.

Chargers "will be installed where beverage vending machines already exist or together with new ones," she added.

SoftBank Telecom and SoftBank Mobile will then connect the charging points with telecommunications infrastructure, the group said in a press release.

A lack of supporting infrastructure has been consistently highlighted as a major barrier to electric vehicle adoption, prompting government and private firms to investigate rolling out charging points at convenient locations.

Sainsbury's, for example, has already installed charging points in a number of supermarket car parks, while two years ago McDonalds unveiled the first restaurant with a car charging station in the US.