San Francisco Bay Area Quick Chargers Getting them sooner

[gascant]

During the National Plugin event at Crissy Field on 9/23/2012, a Nissan representative announced while on the podium that Nissan will deploy 100 level 3 chargers in the bay area over the next two years starting in October 2012.

If they deploy half that many, I'll be happy.

The first one is supposed to be up and running in October according to Brendan Jones, Director of Sales and Marketing.

 

[GRA]

During the National Plugin event at Crissy Field on 9/23/2012, a Nissan representative announced while on the podium that Nissan will deploy 100 level 3 chargers in the bay area over the next two years starting in October 2012.

If they deploy half that many, I'll be happy.

The first one is supposed to be up and running in October according to Brendan Jones, Director of Sales and Marketing.

Any indication of where? Will we finally get some QCs on the major highways leading OUT of the Bay Area, other than Santa Rosa? Say Vacaville, Gilroy, Tracy or Manteca.

 

[JeremyW]

Will we finally get some QCs on the major highways leading OUT of the Bay Area, other than Santa Rosa? Say Vacaville, Gilroy, Tracy or Manteca.

Seriously. Somewhere like... I dunno... Vacaville? :lol: With our luck it'll end up in Redwood city. :?

 

[EricBayArea]

I'm looking for Freemont, San Jose/Santa Clara, Oakland, Berkeley, Dublin, San Francisco.

And not deep in some business park either

 

[gascant]

They didn't say much, but if I had to guess, I'd think they would be located at Nissan dealers. Even though the dealers are independent, Nissan could subsidize the installation costs. But I have nothing to suggest that's the case.

Interestingly, at the Charged 2012 symposium last month, Nissan gave a presentation that showed a directly correlation between fast charging stations and LEAF sales in Japan. I didn't get a copy, but if they apply that model here, they'll put them adjacent to major commuting roads, between destinations people actually want to visit.

 

[gfederas]

Brendan Jones did not specify where the QCs would be installed. To see the complete speech, watch my video from National Plug In Day 2012 at Crissy Field.
http://www.youtube.com/gfederas" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

 

[EVDRIVER]

It would be amazing to have a few along highway 1 north of SF!

 

[GRA]

It would be amazing to have a few along highway 1 north of SF!

Yes, Pt. Reyes Station and Bodega Bay for starters.

 

[GRA]

I'm looking for Fremont, San Jose/Santa Clara, Oakland, Berkeley, Dublin, San Francisco.

And not deep in some business park either

Certainly you want them near either end of major bridges and at interchanges, but most people don't need QC for local driving most of the time; it's mainly to boost confidence. Where we NEED them now is in locations that would allow doubling the practical range, making them useful for shorter out-of-area trips. QCs, properly placed, would allow people to get to Monterey/Big Sur, Sacramento, Napa, and maybe Ft. Ross with one en route stop. Those who are willing to put up with the inconvenience of more than one en route QC could even get to Lake Tahoe or Yosemite, if they are willing to increase their travel time by 50%. I don't think many will do so more than once, but it could be done without turning the trip into a minor expedition, as is the case with L2 now.

 

[gascant]

I'm looking for Fremont, San Jose/Santa Clara, Oakland, Berkeley, Dublin, San Francisco.

And not deep in some business park either

Certainly you want them near either end of major bridges and at interchanges, but most people don't need QC for local driving most of the time; it's mainly to boost confidence. Where we NEED them now is in locations that would allow doubling the practical range, making them useful for shorter out-of-area trips. QCs, properly placed, would allow people to get to Monterey/Big Sur, Sacramento, Napa, and maybe Ft. Ross with one en route stop. Those who are willing to put up with the inconvenience of more than one en route QC could even get to Lake Tahoe or Yosemite, if they are willing to increase their travel time by 50%. I don't think many will do so more than once, but it could be done without turning the trip into a minor expedition, as is the case with L2 now.

Agreed

 

[GRA]

Last night, spotted the newest Bay Area Blink QC. Someone else had beaten me to spotting it by a few hours, and posted it and a photo on Plugshare. It's in the public City Hall Garage in downtown Hayward, in the middle of the block bordered by Mission Blvd., Watkins St., B and C streets. It's located on the ground floor on the east side, facing Mission. It appears to be fully functional, although it and the parking spaces to either side are currently cordoned off. There's two Yazaki connectors, one for the charging car and one for the waiting car. The connectors are heavier duty than the original model, although I still don't like that the locking lever is unprotected. There's a large display (and two smaller ones, one per connector, which you use to set up your charge); although at the moment the larger display is used to demonstrate how to use the unit and also advertise Ecotality/Blink, I'd be willing to bet it will eventually be used for paid advertising like those gas pumps I can't stand.

At the moment there isn't a nearby L2, but there is one at Walgreen's on Jackson about 1.5 miles west, and another couple at Chabot College (off Depot Rd. at Hesperian) on the west side of 880, both closer to the San Mateo Bridge. Those are all Chargepoint. So they've now got both ends of the bridge covered with QCs.

There's also a conduit running from behind the unit off along the wall to the right, ending in a small, square, yellow cap with some sort of keyed barrel lock extending out from the front face. It seems like the conduit should extend farther to the right if they're going to put an L2 adjacent, so I don't know what this thing is for.

There aren't any 'EV charging only' signs as yet, and they haven't painted the ground (don't know if they're going to) in the two parking spaces. The unit occupies what was the middle space of three. It's actually almost in the same spot as the chargers they used to have for the two RAV4 EVs the city owned or leased, but when they got rid of the RAV4s they also removed the chargers and all the conduit, so this is all new work. The city owns or leases at least one Leaf, but they charge that elsewhere.

Although it probably would have been more useful to locate it right off 880 at the Jackson/92 interchange, this isn't a bad spot. In addition to having City Hall, the Post Office, the Library and a Lucky's within a block, within 1.5 blocks there are also 3 banks (U.S., Comerica and Union plus a Chase ATM in Lucky's), a UPS store, Ace Hardware, and by my count 11 fast food places: Peet's; Starbuck's; Subway; Panda Express; Cold Stone Creamery; Jamba Juice; Shark Shack (taqueria); Los Perico's (ditto); Wing Fiesta; Casper's (hot dogs); and The Pizza House (by the slice). There's also six or seven sit down places. Plus, lots of people take Jackson/Mission through Hayward to bypass the 880/238 interchange, so it's pretty much on a main commute route.

And for those like Planet4Ever who are (rightly) leery of counting on a single QC in San Ramon for longer trips, this gives them options. They can plan to charge here and, if it isn't working, continue on to San Ramon to charge instead without having to go too far out of the way.

I'll check it every couple of days and let people know when they've unblocked it, although I have no way to check its functionality. Edit: Added it to Recargo, will change 'coming soon' to 'operational' as soon as they unblock it.

 

[gascant]

Cool! That's about 7.5 miles from the Union City Library, which is the site of our next SF BayLEAFs meeting. I will add it to the meeting invitation. Good spot!

 

[Solarchargedleaf]

I issued a permit today for a Blink fast charger, to be located at the Good Earth Natural foods store in Fairfax. Fairfax is in Marin County along Sir Francis Drake about halfway to the coast. They said it should be installed within a few weeks.

 

[EricBayArea]

I issued a permit today for a Blink fast charger, to be located at the Good Earth Natural foods store in Fairfax. Fairfax is in Marin County along Sir Francis Drake about halfway to the coast. They said it should be installed within a few weeks.

While that's great news that another will be going in, its a bit unfortunate for anyone hoping to use it along the 101 corridor as it'll mean an 8-miles or 20-min (out and back) addition to their 20min charge. So it's a minimum 40min and max of 60min if someone is charging when you arrive.

 

[Deleted member 3147]

I used the new Intuit Blink QC last night. About a mile or so off 101 at Marsh Road, though there are a lot of turns getting there from the freeway and you really need the navigator.

180 Jefferson Drive. The QC is around the back of the building, along with 5 or 6 Blink L2's.

The nice thing is this is close enough to the Belmont (VW) QC that these can act as backup to each other (assuming the whole Blink network isn't on the blink :lol: ). This what we need to make QC really usable.

 

[TEG]

...
There's also a conduit running from behind the unit off along the wall to the right, ending in a small, square, yellow cap with some sort of keyed barrel lock extending out from the front face. It seems like the conduit should extend farther to the right if they're going to put an L2 adjacent, so I don't know what this thing is for...

Was the "barrel lock" red?

I suspect that is the emergency shutoff switch. If you push on it the whole thing turns off and the only way to turn it back on is with the key.

 

[GRA]

...
There's also a conduit running from behind the unit off along the wall to the right, ending in a small, square, yellow cap with some sort of keyed barrel lock extending out from the front face. It seems like the conduit should extend farther to the right if they're going to put an L2 adjacent, so I don't know what this thing is for...

Was the "barrel lock" red?

I suspect that is the emergency shutoff switch. If you push on it the whole thing turns off and the only way to turn it back on is with the key.

That sounds right. I'd considered that it might be some kind of emergency shut-off, but as there were no signs to indicate that it defeats the purpose. But there are also no signs yet saying that the parking spaces are for charging EVs only, so maybe that's what's holding them up from declaring it operational and removing the cordon.

Next time I go by I'll confirm the color.

 

[mxp]

I used the new Intuit Blink QC last night. About a mile or so off 101 at Marsh Road, though there are a lot of turns getting there from the freeway and you really need the navigator.

180 Jefferson Drive. The QC is around the back of the building, along with 5 or 6 Blink L2's.

The nice thing is this is close enough to the Belmont (VW) QC that these can act as backup to each other (assuming the whole Blink network isn't on the blink :lol: ). This what we need to make QC really usable.

Thanks for checking the operational status of this new QC.

 

[GRA]

...
There's also a conduit running from behind the unit off along the wall to the right, ending in a small, square, yellow cap with some sort of keyed barrel lock extending out from the front face. It seems like the conduit should extend farther to the right if they're going to put an L2 adjacent, so I don't know what this thing is for...

Was the "barrel lock" red?

I suspect that is the emergency shutoff switch. If you push on it the whole thing turns off and the only way to turn it back on is with the key.

That sounds right. I'd considered that it might be some kind of emergency shut-off, but as there were no signs to indicate that it defeats the purpose. But there are also no signs yet saying that the parking spaces are for charging EVs only, so maybe that's what's holding them up from declaring it operational and removing the cordon.

Next time I go by I'll confirm the color.

Okay, went by this afternoon (there had been no activity for the past week and a half) and saw a white Leaf using the Hayward QC, having broken the tape and moved some of the sawhorses. Hung around for about 20 minutes until after the charge stopped and met the driver, who turned out to be Jason Smith of Ecotality, checking the functionality. Asked him what they were waiting on as the unit was obviously functional, and he said they just needed the contractor to install the signs and protective bollards around the units. He said they were hoping it would be usable by Monday or Tuesday next week, but they were backed up and it might be later in the week. So, no help for the Bay Leafs meeting this weekend.

Oh, and I confirmed that the red barrel lock was a safety shut-off. That too will have a sign.

 

[GRA]

Checked the Hayward QC today. It's still cordoned off, but since yesterday they've painted the parking space lines green and installed these signs at each parking spot: http://www.stopsignsandmore.com/p-1445-no-parking-symbol-except-for-electric-vehicle-charging-sign-12x18.aspx" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

All that remains to be done is install the protective posts around the EVSE units, and (I assume) install a sign labeling the emergency power shut-off.