New California Corridor Fast Chargers Installed

[user 340]

The California Energy Commission has announced intended awards for their second solicitation for DCFCs along transportation corridors (GFO-15-603). I don't think that they circulated this via email (or I lost it), but the list can be found here:
http://www.energy.ca.gov/contracts/GFO-15-603_NOPA.pdf

That is just a list of the proposals selected for the different segments in the solicitation. The good news is that the awardees are established companies, largely the same ones that won awards for the earlier I5 / 101 etc solicitation: Recargo, ChargePoint, EV Connect. A total of $14M is recommended for funding.

I think that the CEC has to wait for a formal meeting to actually approve the awards. Hopefully that will happen soon and more info will be given re. locations of individual DCFCs.

 

[miimura]

What does is mean when there are two Proposed Awards for the same corridor? There are duplicates for #2, #3, #4, #7, #9, and #12. In most cases ChargePoint significantly out-scored the second proposed awardee (Recargo or EV Connect). #2 was close with CP @ 92.3% vs. Recargo @ 90.1%.

Also, I don't understand why Ulmar to Tracy is a corridor. The existing NRG sites in Livermore and Tracy are only 24 miles apart and the city centers of Ulmar and Tracy are only 18.4 miles apart.

 

[user 340]

What does is mean when there are two Proposed Awards for the same corridor? There are duplicates for #2, #3, #4, #7, #9, and #12. In most cases ChargePoint significantly out-scored the second proposed awardee (Recargo or EV Connect). #2 was close with CP @ 92.3% vs. Recargo @ 90.1%.

Also, I don't understand why Ulmar to Tracy is a corridor. The existing NRG sites in Livermore and Tracy are only 24 miles apart and the city centers of Ulmar and Tracy are only 18.4 miles apart.

Well, the announcement says that they recommend giving out $13.9M, but the solicitation promised only $10M. It looks like they will be putting more chargers than they originally planned on some corridors.

I suspect that the CEC is ignoring the NRG chargers, or else they have eliminated them from consideration on some technical criterion of the solicitation (re. Ulmar to Tracy). I attended the EV infrastructure part of their ARFVTP meeting today (via webex), and the CEC crowed about soon installing chargers between the Bay Area and Lake Tahoe. I guess that they haven't looked at plugshare.com lately.

The CEC also crowed about the US Green Vehicle Council 24 kW DC chargers along I5 that they funded. During the public comments I thanked them for their efforts in this arena but also pointed out that those cannot really be considered fast chargers in the era of 40+ kWh batteries. I also encouraged them to ensure that the newly awarded DCFCs be installed quickly because they are also in danger of being obsolete before their first use if it takes 3+ years to install them.

 

[miimura]

Is it possible they will interleave the sites between two proposed awards for a corridor, reducing the dollar amount for each awardee?

You were too kind in your comments. The USGVC chargers are currently useless because they would lead you into an area where they are the ONLY charging infrastructure and there is not even any L2 backup at most of those sites. There is no way I'm going to plan a trip based on those chargers when I have no way to be 100% sure they are working, even if I could tolerate their low charging power.

The only saving grace for the existing grants that are not yet installed is that they required additional capacity to support 150kW chargers in the future. However, my point stands, that I will not use a corridor that depends on a single charger. There has to be another charger within a reasonable buffer distance down the road, or a site must have two independent chargers.

 

[miimura]

Bakersfield now has a non-dealer fast charge location. It is at the Walmart Supercenter at the Panama Lane exit off CA-99. It is a NRG EVgo site with two ABB chargers. It looks like a good location with In-N-Out, Wendy's, Starbucks, Denny's all nearby.

PlugShare: Walmart Supercenter Bakersfield

Also, another one up the road about half way between Bakersfield and Tulare. NRG EVgo, two ABB chargers.

Plugshare: Walmart Supercenter Delano

I think that officially makes Sacramento to LA a cake walk for a RAV4 EV with JdeMO all the way down CA-99.

 

[TonyWilliams]

I'm coming up north in a couple weeks, so I'll take this route.

 

[swogee]

Any suggestions or news for the route on 101 between SLO and Salinas? I'll probably have to make the trip to the Bay Area from SLO a couple times in the next few months and there still isn't a L3 charger along that route yet. I can drive 50 mph but with the cooler temps and battery degradation I don't know if I can make it non-stop. My RAV4 has about 45K miles on it now. It's kind of tough driving 50mph along the stretch of 101 where the speed limit jumps to 70 mph since the speed differential is even greater. Some drivers (and even the Sheriff's deputies) are not very nice to drivers going 50 mph.

 

[TonyWilliams]

For that route, just plan a 30-60 min stop at the RV park in King City. Bring your JESLA!!!

 

[jgblair]

I just drove the 101 route Tuesday and Wednesday (thanks Tony for the new JdeMO!) and I opted to stay at a motel overnight in Paso Robles. There is a J1772 at The Oaks Hotel (relatively expensive at $1.15/hour as long as you are plugged in), but still workable. Even with cruise control at 60-65, I am only getting about 115+ miles with 21,000 miles. Driving from Sonoma County down to Newport (and up again next week), it works out as the perfect stopping point. I am just not wanting to drive more than 6 hours + charging time anymore.

John

 

[n3ckf]

i did that route back in September and stopped as the Paso Robles park and ride for about 90 min + the fast charger at the Marigold center in SLO.
Its a little scary in the southerly direction because theres that big hill on the 101 going into SLO and you think you're going to run out... but once you go over it you can harvest all the way down into SLO. I think i had like 10 miles left when i crested the top of the hill (but more than that when i reached Marigold) (I had around 50K on my Rav when doing that).

I was only going about 50 miles beyond SLO so that was perfect.

 

[jgblair]

I filled up to 92% in Salinas on Tuesday and kept the cruise control at 60-65 (indicated 63 to 68). I rolled into Paso Robles (96 miles) with 2 bars (10 miles on the GOM). If I was planning to continue to SLO, I would have had to drive a lot slower. This is my first long trip. I had thought I would get closer to 120 or so miles (using Tony's 90% capacity chart at 65). Maybe it is more hilly than I expected?

John

 

[miimura]

There tends to be a lot of wind up and down the Salinas Valley, so it's hard to tell what efficiency you're going to get between Paso Robles and Salinas. I guess the best way would be to reset the Past Record efficiency screen using the Update button, so you have a running tally of the Average efficiency for that leg while you're driving. At least there is a L2 charger in Soledad now to bail you out if you're coming up short on charge going North. It's been there less than a year.

 

[miimura]

Bakersfield now has a non-dealer fast charge location. It is at the Walmart Supercenter at the Panama Lane exit off CA-99. It is a NRG EVgo site with two ABB chargers. It looks like a good location with In-N-Out, Wendy's, Starbucks, Denny's all nearby.

PlugShare: Walmart Supercenter Bakersfield

Also, another one up the road about half way between Bakersfield and Tulare. NRG EVgo, two ABB chargers.

Plugshare: Walmart Supercenter Delano

I think that officially makes Sacramento to LA a cake walk for a RAV4 EV with JdeMO all the way down CA-99.

The Delano site was changed to "Coming Soon" on Plugshare. The new Bakersfield site on the other hand has EVgo network status populated in the listing, so it must be active.

 

[miimura]

Another new NRG station popped up on CA-99 in Madera at the SaveMart. This is a fill-in location between Chowchilla and Fresno. It shows active charger status fields for two dual-standard chargers in Plugshare but no check-ins or photos yet. I assume it is a pair of BTC chargers like Chowchilla.

Plugshare: Save Mart Madera

I also found a new NRG station on I-80 in Dixon at the Walmart Supercenter. This is between the Vacaville Premium Outlets and Davis. Pictures show a pair of BTC chargers.

Plugshare: Walmart Supercenter Dixon

One more. The north end of Santa Rosa got a NRG site with three dual standard chargers at the Walmart. This is the last fast charge station on 101 north out of the Bay Area. The picture shows two ABB chargers and there are status links for two, so the third charger in the listing may not be real.

Plugshare: Walmart Santa Rosa

 

[miimura]

The CEC released a Localized Health Impacts report for GFO-15-603. This report contains the proposed location, including business name and address, of many of the fast chargers in the Interregional Fast Charge Corridors. The report is here.

It is clear from the list that there are overlapping grants to different entities for the same corridor. One other thing that stood out was that they listed one or two DCFC units at most sites, but two sites have 3 chargers (Eureka & Hopland) and two sites have 4 chargers (Baker & Indio).

Once again, here are the corridors in this grant.

 

[miimura]

The grant for the Interregional Corridors mentioned in the previous post is much more recent than the North-South Corridors (GFO-15-601) that I am more interested in, so I went looking for the Localized Health Impacts Report for that grant. The document, linked here, was released in March, 2016. I found it quite revealing. Also more than a little disappointing. I mapped some of the locations and found the following:

1. The location in King City is not good. It is not near any of the commonly used amenities near the freeway, nor is it in the center of town.
2. The location in Paso Robles is also way outside of town on CA-46 and without any nearby amenities, yet it will have 2 DCFCs.
3. The location at the north end of the Grapevine is in Grapevine (Lebec address), not Wheeler Ridge where there are more amenities.
4. The other lower central valley I-5 locations are fine, basically in Lathrop, Santa Nella (Gustine), Harris Ranch, and Buttonwillow, near available amenities, but only have one DCFC plus a dual port L2 to start with.

Anyway, take a look for yourselves if interested. Maybe if I have some spare time I will make a Zeemap or something of the locations.

 

[swogee]

I'm pretty familiar with the area between SLO and the Bay Area so I'll add a few more comments regarding the proposed locations along 101.

1) The site in King City is at a 24 hour truck stop that has easy access to the freeway. It's south of town and the truck stop does have a small convenience store and I think there's a restaurant there as well. It would have been nice to have the charger at the Safeway in the middle of town, but at least there will be 24 hour service at the truck stop. In the past I always have stopped at the truck stop to get diesel since it's usually cheaper.

2) The location in Paso Robles is west of 101 on 46 West going towards the coast. There's usually quite a bit of traffic on 46 West. It appears to be located at a winery/inn. It's about 1.1 miles off of US101.

 

[miimura]

Bakersfield now has a non-dealer fast charge location. It is at the Walmart Supercenter at the Panama Lane exit off CA-99. It is a NRG EVgo site with two ABB chargers. It looks like a good location with In-N-Out, Wendy's, Starbucks, Denny's all nearby.

PlugShare: Walmart Supercenter Bakersfield

Also, another one up the road about half way between Bakersfield and Tulare. NRG EVgo, two ABB chargers.

Plugshare: Walmart Supercenter Delano

I think that officially makes Sacramento to LA a cake walk for a RAV4 EV with JdeMO all the way down CA-99.

The Delano site was changed to "Coming Soon" on Plugshare. The new Bakersfield site on the other hand has EVgo network status populated in the listing, so it must be active.

The Delano site appears to be active now. The Coming Soon has been removed and one of the chargers has an active Availability link.

 

[jgblair]

I don't understand why it is difficult to site these charging stations unless the businesses don't want them. They should be sited just the same as gas stations:

-Next to the freeway for long distance travel (level 3 with a level 2 as a backup)
-Near restrooms
-Near food (both restaurants and fast food)
-Well lit and open for late night use
-Located about every 25 miles
-Signage on the freeway and at the locations where these stations are hidden. It is not like they are a gas station with huge signs and lighting. I often had to hunt around to find the single or double pedestals on my recent trip.

I believe most gas stations used by travelers are in good locations like that. It seems like the people making these decisions can just ask themselves if they are driving their ICE would they want to drive a mile or two off of the freeway or end up at a location without restrooms or food. It also seems like Tesla got it pretty right for their superchargers. Why does this seem so hard for others?

John

 

[n3ckf]

well for a fast charger you need special electrical service so its going to be larger store or business that has that service.
Regular (not fast) chargers use commonly available 208 or 240V electrical circuits but fast chargers require 3 phase.