Electric vehicle charging station, system, and methods

An electric vehicle charging network, comprising:

• one or more electric vehicle charging stations, each electric vehicle charging station configured to communicate with personal computing/communications devices via a short range wireless communications protocol, the short range wireless communications protocol incapable of communicating directly with a remote server wherein each electric vehicle charging station stores data for a series of charging sessions in memory until an appropriate personal computing/communications device enters within range of the wireless communications interface;
• and
• a server configured to communicate with personal computing/communications devices via a second wireless communication protocol different from the short range wireless communications protocol, the second wireless communications protocol capable of communicating directly with a personal computing/communications device, wherein
• each electric vehicle charging station communicates the session data for the series of charging sessions by first transmitting the session data from the electric vehicle charging station opportunistically using the short range wireless communications protocol through an available personal computing/communications device external to each electric vehicle charging station and then by transmitting the session data through a long-range wireless communications interface of the personal computing/communications device to the server using the second wireless communications protocol.

A method of provisioning an electric vehicle charging station, comprising:

• storing session data for a series of charging sessions in memory of the electric vehicle charging station until an appropriate personal computing/communications device enters within range of the electric vehicle charging station;
• transferring the session data between the electric vehicle charging station and a remote server opportunistically via the personal communications/computing device external to the electric vehicle charging station, wherein
• the personal communications/computing device communicates the session data to the electric vehicle charging station via a short range wireless communications protocol, the short range wireless communications protocol incapable of use in communicating directly with the remote server, and
• then, the personal communications/computing device communicates the session data to the remote server using a second wireless communications protocol different from the short range wireless communications protocol, the second wireless communications protocol capable use in communicating directly with the remote server.