Where are all the public stations in Los Angeles?

[adaminla]

I know that we've got a huge ecotality test market in Los Angeles, there are a number of leaf's on the road here and in general, we have an EV friendly city.

My question is Where are all the public charging stations? The only ones that my car shows are at local Nissan dealers.

Not having been the recipient of the ecotality largess I question why the subsidy went to install chargers in people's homes instead of building out the infrastructure for the general public to use...

 

[TomT]

With the exception of a very few public venues such as LAX, the SM pier and a few shopping centers, they are still pretty much MIA. Ecotality has yet to actually build much of anything...

My question is Where are the public chargers?

 

[smkettner]

http://www.mychargepoint.net/find-stations.php

Put in your zip and radius to find a few

 

[avanti5010]

Same thing in Phoenix. According to the above there is only one near Chandler. What a joke that is. I think we have been fed some BS about the infrastructure for charging.
I live north of Phoenix and cannot take my Leaf any further than Chandler? And no way can I go north to Prescott or Flagstaff. What happened to the charging stations on I17 for AZ?????

 

[edatoakrun]

...Not having been the recipient of the ecotality largess I question why the subsidy went to install chargers in people's homes instead of building out the infrastructure for the general public to use...

Yes, the huge subsidy cost for home L2 is a waste. Particularly when you consider that probably half of all those installing home chargers, those whose daily commutes are less than thirty-something miles (6 or 7 hours of off-peak charging at L1) don't really even have a need for them.

Pretty much the entire car buying public is now convinced, incorrectly, that you need thousands of dollars of special equipment installed in your garage, in order to charge an EV.

And they also believe, correctly, that there is very little public EV charging infrastructure in the US, at present.

 

[TRONZ]

The two area clusters of public chargers is around Santa Monica Place mall and South Coast Plaza in Orange County. Get a free Charge Point ChargePass card to access these units. Free electronz is good!

 

[davewill]

Particularly when you consider that probably half of all those installing home chargers, those whose daily commutes are less than thirty-something miles (6 or 7 hours of off-peak charging at L1) don't really even have a need for them.

Can't win around here. On one side, we get people yelling that 70 to 80 miles of range is a joke and good for nothing...on the other side we have people saying that we don't need more than 6-7 hours of L1, and home L2 is a waste.

What is wrong with wanting to have some room for unusual need? If the other car goes in the shop, or my wife takes it out of town for a few days, and I have to run all the kids activities, I don't want to have to rent another car to accomplish it. It's also nice to know I can decide to go shopping or to a ball game after work without having to switch cars in advance.

I happen to believe BOTH that the current electric cars have enough range to be useful, AND that home L2 is important to making their limitations palatable to the general public. The price of home L2 is going to come down, I think drastically so, in the future.

 

[Stoaty]

The price of home L2 is going to come down, I think drastically so, in the future.

Maybe for some, but not for those living in condos, where most of the install is getting power from the meter to the parking area. For me, install of AV EVSE was $2800 parts and labor. If I just wanted a 120 volt socket, it probably would have been about $1800. The main cost was installing a subpanel and running conduit 65 feet to where the 120 volt outlet/L2 charging dock. There was already a 120 volt socket near enough to my space, but it was on the HOA meter, and I couldn't get permission to use it and pay for the electricity, even in our small 7 unit condo.

 

[davewill]

The price of home L2 is going to come down, I think drastically so, in the future.

Maybe for some, but not for those living in condos, where most of the install is getting power from the meter to the parking area. For me, install of AV EVSE was $2800 parts and labor.

Yes, but that's now. In the future, the HOA will be used to electric cars, and probably want to do the wiring so that their prop values won't drop, because all the other condos already have it.

 

[edatoakrun]

Particularly when you consider that probably half of all those installing home chargers, those whose daily commutes are less than thirty-something miles (6 or 7 hours of off-peak charging at L1) don't really even have a need for them.

Can't win around here. On one side, we get people yelling that 70 to 80 miles of range is a joke and good for nothing...on the other side we have people saying that we don't need more than 6-7 hours of L1, and home L2 is a waste.

What is wrong with wanting to have some room for unusual need? If the other car goes in the shop, or my wife takes it out of town for a few days, and I have to run all the kids activities, I don't want to have to rent another car to accomplish it. It's also nice to know I can decide to go shopping or to a ball game after work without having to switch cars in advance.

I happen to believe BOTH that the current electric cars have enough range to be useful, AND that home L2 is important to making their limitations palatable to the general public. The price of home L2 is going to come down, I think drastically so, in the future.

If you feel you need, or just want, L2 at home, by all means get it. But every BEV buyer, whether they want or need L2 at home, is severely limited by the current lack of public charging.

Public L2 could be used not only by you, but by many others, at less cost than giving away the L2 and installation in private homes, as the several "free" home charger programs are doing. And access to Public DC charging would more or less double every BEV's range. I just think the subsidies do not match the priorities for most BEV drivers.

If I could get an L2 for free, I might take advantage of such a program myself. But it looks like I'll get near the same speed of home charging, AND access to (almost) the only "public" charging around currently, RV resorts and the like, by purchasing one of Ingineer's L1 conversions, and a few adapters.

 

[socalleaf]

I made a visit to the LA DWP headquarters in downtown LA on Hope St. to check out their EVSEs and to ask at the parking kiosk about accessibility of the EVSEs to the public. Here is what I found: Talking to the parking attendant, he said that anyone could come in to use the EVSEs. You just need to show ID and he will let you in. He said the parking structure there is open 24/7 and EV parking to charge is free So sounds like great news! Except that all the L2 EVSEs are legacy small paddle units. I could not see any that had J connectors. All the 10 or so spaces lined up with EVSEs on the wall were ICE'd....every single one. There was one unit that when I flipped open the cover had a 120 and a NEMA 15-40 receptacle. There was an electric motorcycle plugged into the 120 receptacle. Here are pictures http://flic.kr/ps/WABJY
I tried to contact someone at DWP to ask about these EVSEs and when they would be retrofitted with the J connector but no luck. So maybe there is a forum member who knows someone at the headquarters who can push this issue with them. Seems pretty unbelievable that they don't have these updated yet. I understand not all of them should be updated because there are EVs that need the small paddle.
LADWP headquarters is right across from the Music Center downtown.

 

[thankyouOB]

I sure would like to see more l2 and l3 EVSEs in LA, or any.

But let's get real here. This isn't Hogwarts and all this stuff doesn't just happen because Dumbledoor waves his wand.
Infrastructure takes time and is installed incrementally.
Exactly how many Leafs are there in LA right now--40?
Probably less. So, what exactly is the demand side on this, at the moment now?

Early adopters have an intense sense of entitlement. Sometimes verging on icky. I agree that we need this to succeed and L2 is part of the plan, but ease on back on the reins a bit.

Unless you think the squeaky wheel always gets good PR.

 

[KeiJidosha]

So maybe there is a forum member who knows someone at the headquarters who can push this issue with them. Seems pretty unbelievable that they don't have these updated yet. I understand not all of them should be updated because there are EVs that need the small paddle.
LADWP headquarters is right across from the Music Center downtown.

There is a $1.9 million grant from CARB to update some of the California legacy chargers. The 2 chargers at the LA Convention Center were converted to J1772 before the auto show in November. Have not been able to find out which legacy chargers will be updated or when. It’s a mystery and an adventure.

 

[davewill]

Early adopters have an intense sense of entitlement. Sometimes verging on icky.

That's an ugly way to put it, but I'm getting used to that. It's the chicken and egg problem. We can't have charging facilities without the cars, and people won't buy the cars without charging facilities...so we push and advocate, even when the numbers aren't there, yet.

 

[thankyouOB]

Early adopters have an intense sense of entitlement. Sometimes verging on icky.

That's an ugly way to put it, but I'm getting used to that. It's the chicken and egg problem. We can't have charging facilities without the cars, and people won't buy the cars without charging facilities...so we push and advocate, even when the numbers aren't there, yet.

you dont like icky, Dave?
think of all the other ways that could be put and be really ugly.
icky combines nose wrinkling with childish.

 

[adaminla]

The one challenge I can see is how to deal with the existing charge systems that use the paddle style chargers installed when GM was 'promoting' the Impact. Almost every public charger near me (I'm in the western San Gabriel Valley) is either a paddle device or the one that was used by the Toyota Rav4.

Tonight I stopped at the Pasadena public parking garage today on delacy street that shows up in the EVSE link below and am disappointed to see that the older style units are in place.
http://www.afdc.energy.gov/afdc/progs/ind_state.php/CA/ELEC

At the YMCA I use, they have a legacy meter and pole in the parking lot with no charger. I've left a message for the CEO to ask about the possibility of re-activating it.

With any luck and some positive pushing, perhaps we can get more of these chargers changed out. I understand the chicken and egg problem and know I've chosen to be one of the eggs (or is it chickens) in this adventure but the view from my driver's seat is a pretty bleak infrastructure and minimal coming improvements.

As I understand it, the Ecotality project was designed to provide fast charge capable cars to prove the concept. With the cars now here, the proving can begin but not without any infrastructure improvements beyond Nissan dealers.

 

[91040]

4/15/11 City of Pasadena response to when the J1772 chargers would be installed:

"Staff is currently working on updating the charging equipment City-wide. Please stay tuned for updates."

 

[LBCev]

Over the past weekend I took advantage of the free charging and EV parking at LAX - a savings of $120 for my four day trip back east. I parked in P1 which has about ten EV spaces, most of which had legacy inductive paddle chargers. There was a bank of Level II Coloumb ChargePoint stations - three or four - and I was able to use one of these. When we left there were two Volts and an old RAV4 plugged in. On our return one of the volts was replaced by a Silver LEAF with the eco package trim. It was cool to see another LEAF in the wild.

I loved coming back to a full charge. I've also used public charging at South Coast Plaza, which was critical on a 91 mile day of mixed driving with A/C, so in my opinion there is a definite need for this infrastructure to be built. :!:

A quick note to those seeking to use LAX parking - although the website makes no mention of it and their customer service people suggested otherwise - they do require the State EV sticker for free parking. The attendant had to call a supervisor to authorize a waiver to my fee. I imagine they are getting familiar with the issue as my car, the two Volts and the other LEAF all had temporary tags. I brought a printout of the web page just in case I ran into issues.

 

[adaminla]

Stopped by the Costco in Alhambra (91801) today to see their two chargers. One Magnatech and one for the Toyota systems. Bummer.

I'd suggest that almost every one of the Magnatech ones can be replaced for instant charger roll outs in Los Angeles that will actually be used.

No Costco shopping for me today...

 

[lettcco]

When I was in Santa Monica this weekend, I checked out the Pier charging station and found a clipper creek J1772 EVSE that no one has mentioned before. Don't know if it was functional as I didn't park there. I think parking for all car is $8.