San Francisco Bay Area Quick Chargers Getting them sooner

[gascant]

What about ICE's paying something to clean up the air. I agree we do use the roads and without the road tax. But the ICE do not pay the full cost of running them ether. You want the BEV to pay their full cost but not the ICE. I would have no problems paying a road use tax with my annual license plates, but I would like the ICE pay for the pollution they are creating.

In my view, that's also coming. Not obviously, because in the near term, gassers have to get more efficient to meet the new CAFE standards. But picture the California Air Resources Board allocating carbon allotments to car owners. It could happen. Or the State could add another tax to every gallon of gas.

But we digress from the main topic......

 

[Nubo]

I had always envisioned an ATM type model where no matter what EVSE I chose it would take my card and bill it back to an electric utility account. As with ATMs, individual locations can have a convenience surcharge, or provide the service for free. I think that carrying 5 or 10 RFIDs and maintaining accounts with different pay arrangements is going to get REALLY old.

As I recall, the BAAQMD was looking at this specific issue. It definitely is a hindrance. I only carry a chargepoint card since they are well-represented in the Bay Area, and reliable. I've yet to order a Blink card and not sure I want the hassle just to have access to a handful of balky QC. Much less other minor players such as the ephemeral "char jit".

The Tower of Babel approach is definitely a turn-off.

 

[walterbays]

I think that carrying 5 or 10 RFIDs and maintaining accounts with different pay arrangements is going to get REALLY old.

If you're old enough you can remember a time when drivers used to carry a half dozen or more different oil company credit cards, each of which would only work at a single chain of gas stations. You probably also carried several department store credit cards. Then came Amex, Visa and Mastercard. When EV charging becomes widespread enough I imagine the bank cards will want a share of the business and we can put our single chain cards away if we like.

The timing might work out right for this. Now the U.S. uses old fashioned mag stripe credit cards while Europe uses newer more secure chip&pin cards, for which U.S. merchants don't want to pay the infrastructure costs. Both might move to still newer RFID cards and/or NFC. And RFID is what most EV charging networks are using. So bank cards could quickly add charging networks into their merchant networks. I do hope it's done using RFID&pin (or NFC&pin) rather than Blink's less secure RFID&zipcode, or the insecure RFID&nothing experiments they're doing in Europe.

 

[GRA]

I think that carrying 5 or 10 RFIDs and maintaining accounts with different pay arrangements is going to get REALLY old.

If you're old enough you can remember a time when drivers used to carry a half dozen or more different oil company credit cards, each of which would only work at a single chain of gas stations. You probably also carried several department store credit cards. Then came Amex, Visa and Mastercard. ,snip>

Personally, rather than carry a bunch of oil company credit cards, I carried numerous copies of a single 'card' in my wallet, the ones that had "Federal Reserve Note" and "This note is legal tender for all debts, public and private" printed on them. Accepted everywhere for gas in my experience, although with unattended pumps after hours it could be a problem now. But I realize I'm a dinosaur (for some reason what immediately popped into my mind when I wrote that was a mental image of The Far Side cartoon captioned "The Real Reason Dinosaurs became Extinct", although I've never had that particular vice):

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Jo7lJoQhtjw/SdKDhfTf6GI/AAAAAAAAE3s/jfl0DJ_1yzQ/s400/The_Real_Reason_Dinosaurs_Became_Extinct.jpg&imgrefurl=http://wisdomquarterly.blogspot.com/2009/03/sex-do-animals-enjoy-it.html&h=400&w=307&sz=59&tbnid=7RE4WfPhS0Rs7M:&tbnh=90&tbnw=69&zoom=1&usg=__yVhRdvc5MqYHtdh84WeTqdhZ0FU=&docid=wC12zYbDsYaApM&sa=X&ei=m5T4UM3sEKTziQL_j4C4Bw&ved=0CEQQ9QEwBA&dur=3709" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

 

[JeremyW]

NOT A SINGLE CITY, COUNTY, UTILITY, STATE OR OTHER PUBLIC ENTITY IS GIVING AWAY DC CHARGING IN CALIFORNIA.

At the Greater Sacramento EAA meeting last week, SMUD (our municipal electric co) announced they are going to put in 9 quick chargers in it's service territory. As far as I know they will be free, but probably not forever.

 

[Nubo]

There's a multi-use trail that I walk often at lunchtime. It passes behind the Concord Hilton where today I noticed they were installing a 2-port BLINK QC. The fellow said it should be available in a couple of weeks.

I may have to get a BLINK card after all, if for nothing else, to actually make sure my ChaDeMo port works before the warranty expires. :lol: Actually, I guess it could come in handy at some point. There are also a number of BLINK L2 going in alongside. Not far from I680 so would seem to be a useful location in general.

https://maps.google.com/maps?q=37.972252,-122.053847&num=1&t=h&z=19" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

 

[edatoakrun]

There's a multi-use trail that I walk often at lunchtime. It passes behind the Concord Hilton where today I noticed they were installing a 2-port BLINK QC. The fellow said it should be available in a couple of weeks.

I may have to get a BLINK card after all, if for nothing else, to actually make sure my ChaDeMo port works before the warranty expires. :lol: Actually, I guess it could come in handy at some point. There are also a number of BLINK L2 going in alongside. Not far from I680 so would seem to be a useful location in general.

https://maps.google.com/maps?q=37.972252,-122.053847&num=1&t=h&z=19" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Thanks for the update.

They're crawling in my direction!

Only 212 miles left to go....

 

[planet4ever]

Not far from I680 so would seem to be a useful location in general.

That is a great spot. Right where 242 forks off from I-680 on the way to Pittsburg and Antioch. 'Course I could be biased, with two great-grandkids living in Antioch.

This won't by any chance be restricted to Hilton guests, though, will it?

Ray

 

[Nubo]

Not far from I680 so would seem to be a useful location in general.

That is a great spot. Right where 242 forks off from I-680 on the way to Pittsburg and Antioch. 'Course I could be biased, with two great-grandkids living in Antioch.

This won't by any chance be restricted to Hilton guests, though, will it?

Ray

According to the installer I spoke with, it cannot be restricted because of the arrangement with the DOE.

 

[GRA]

Not far from I680 so would seem to be a useful location in general.

That is a great spot. Right where 242 forks off from I-680 on the way to Pittsburg and Antioch. 'Course I could be biased, with two great-grandkids living in Antioch.

This won't by any chance be restricted to Hilton guests, though, will it?

Ray

Ray, that gives you three chances to find a working Blink QC on the way: Hayward, San Ramon and Concord. Given that it's Ecotality, with those odds you might just be able to make it in your Leaf. :lol:

I note too that it's about 67 miles to Sacramento from there via 680/80 to the junction of 50/99, so given a short L2 topoff Bay Area people could make it to Sacto, although with just a single QC there's no way you could depend on it.

 

[DaveinOlyWA]

I had always envisioned an ATM type model where no matter what EVSE I chose it would take my card and bill it back to an electric utility account. As with ATMs, individual locations can have a convenience surcharge, or provide the service for free. I think that carrying 5 or 10 RFIDs and maintaining accounts with different pay arrangements is going to get REALLY old.

As far as free charging, I think that the time is almost gone where this is a good idea, at least in the areas that have decent numbers of EVs. I feel that free stations poison the surrounding area for commercial EVSEs, and actually retard infrastructure growth. If you don't think that's true, I suggest considering the way people drive out of their way, and wait in lines at discount gas stations (Costco) when people could pay an extra buck for the whole tank and get gas conveniently.

not sure I can say I see it the same way. the debatable subsidy for gasoline not withstanding, until the cost of burning gas is raised, I think that free charging is more than acceptable.

but that will require a huge change. We can longer accept gasoline and electricity being on a "level" field. the impact of each is not the same, the benefit of each is not the same.

I just got my confirm for the Yokohama trip and about choked on the price of tickets. but its a Biz class ticket and therefore the impact on the plane is not the same and boy does it ever reflect in the ticket price.

but gasoline was the best option for a long time so subsidizing it was a good thing. that is no longer true and obviously changing things over night besides being politically impossible, is financial suicide but it needs to be done and the sooner we get started on it the better.

there is a lot of low hanging fruit here. demand charges, parking enforcement, HOV privileges (had to "choke" that one down as I am not a proponent), tax breaks for private hosts, raising the gas tax to be market adjustable, etc. (http://daveinolywa.blogspot.com/2013/01/gas-is-cheap.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false. Besides, if the public knows that gas wont get cheap again (i am amazed at the spike of SUV sales every time the price of gas drops a fricking Quarter! as if we think it will never go back up again...) their fickle buying habits might be more reasonable.

But Nissan no doubt is installing the DCFCs (guessing nationwide) more from the disappointing progress of the federally funded and private sector progress that has not been made and that fact that EVs need support and relying on someone else to do it was a mistake from day one.

Public support will only come when there are enough out on the roads and with support that should happen much quicker

the support is essential and whether they were prodded by Tesla's actions or not, it is a major win-win for Nissan and us the owners

 

[Phoenix]

I had always envisioned an ATM type model where no matter what EVSE I chose it would take my card and bill it back to an electric utility account. As with ATMs, individual locations can have a convenience surcharge, or provide the service for free. I think that carrying 5 or 10 RFIDs and maintaining accounts with different pay arrangements is going to get REALLY old.

Better yet, if our electric utility account offsets the amount of excess dollar amount of residential solar we have generated on an annual basis, this would pay for our travelling around electric cost. This would encourage frugality and energy efficiency at home. Then, PG&E credits/pays the third-party EVSE for the electricity we used while on the road, since we have already contributed excess energy value to the grid.

 

[EricBayArea]

For those that are curious, I drove by the Hilton in Concord and saw the Blink units going in.

There was 1 mammoth L3 unit and about 4 or 6 L2 units. They are on the north end of the hotel parking lot.

Its right across the street from a center with Panera, REI, AnyMountain, Aaron Brothers, Old Navy, Jamba Juice, etc., etc. It is located very close the highway, here.

Being across the street is good and bad... Good because you can go do something for 15-25 minutes. Bad because its easy to get distracted and leave your car. Hopefully both handles work on this one.

 

[kevini]

Looks like there is a new Blink DCQC @ Facebook in Menlo Park. Good to have some redundancy before you cross 84. Anyone tried it yet?

 

[Electric4Me]

Wow, they're really starting to appear almost on top of each other in that area of the peninsula! Which seems to be necessary for redundancy with the Blinks...

Any news yet from Nissan on their dealerships that will get DCFC? I thought an announcement was due out by now... Curious minds want to know! :lol:

 

[planet4ever]

Wow, they're really starting to appear almost on top of each other in that area of the peninsula!

It does seem strange that the Peninsula is getting so many with zero in the South Bay and only 2 in the whole of the East Bay/Contra Costa/Livermore Valley area.

Ray

 

[edatoakrun]

Wow, they're really starting to appear almost on top of each other in that area of the peninsula!

It does seem strange that the Peninsula is getting so many with zero in the South Bay and only 2 in the whole of the East Bay/Contra Costa/Livermore Valley area.

Ray

Not to mention the lack of DCs where you really need them, 50 to 60 miles from your homes, such as:

(start the chant)

VACAVILLE!

VACAVILLE!

VACAVILLE!

 

[GRA]

Wow, they're really starting to appear almost on top of each other in that area of the peninsula!

It does seem strange that the Peninsula is getting so many with zero in the South Bay and only 2 in the whole of the East Bay/Contra Costa/Livermore Valley area.

Ray

Not to mention the lack of DCs where you really need them, 50 to 60 miles from your homes, such as:

(start the chant)

VACAVILLE!

VACAVILLE!

VACAVILLE!

Or Fairfield and/or Vallejo. Vacaville is too close to Sacramento to be ideal for many people heading to the Bay Area. Vacaville (Davis St.) is about 53 miles from S.F. (Jct. 80/101), but only about 34 miles from Sacramento (Jct. 50/99). Fairfield's about 43 miles from Sacramento, 45 from S.F., which is within an 80% charge range (with a 10 mile reserve) going either way. And for people heading to the South Bay, Vallejo (Jct. 80/780) is about 58 miles from Sacramento, 29 from S.F., but 63 from San Jose (Jct 880/101). There are Nissan dealers in all three cities.

Ideally you'd have QCs in all three locations, although Concord _may_ serve for people heading to the South Bay via 680 - 67 miles from Sacramento, 47 to S.J. Benicia (680/780) would be another option - 59 from Sacto, 55 to S.J., but no dealer.

 

[TEG]

I hope they put one in Gilroy.
Maybe Gilroy Nissan will get one.

Tesla has a Supercharger at the factory "outlets" which is a good location for a stop.

 

[GRA]

I hope they put one in Gilroy.
Maybe Gilroy Nissan will get one.

Tesla has a Supercharger at the factory "outlets" which is a good location for a stop.

The dealers in Gilroy and Salinas are the two most needed ones for people going to Monterey/Carmel.