Electrify America Network

[LeftieBiker]

I haven't been following this closely. Are there any planned stations in the Adirondacks?

[GetOffYourGas]

No, none north of I-90.

[LeftieBiker]

Oh well, at least the Lake George area has one now.

[GetOffYourGas]

Yes, and that one has served me well so far. Unfortunately, the Welcome Center QCs are slowly dying - Southern Tier and Western NY already have broken chargers which are being neglected. The perils of free chargers. Frankly, I wish they charged a nominal fee for them for two reasons. 1) it discourages people from opportunity charging, keeping them available for those who need them and 2) the fees could be used for maintenance (even if they don't cover energy let alone recoup installation costs).

At least EA is required to keep their chargers online. They have set aside a budget for maintenance. And if VWAG gets serious about EVs, they have a continuing motivation to keep them alive and online.

[LeftieBiker]

Hopefully the Cuomo administration will be reasonably attentive to repairs, at least while the state charging network is in the build-out phase. Have you reported the broken chargers?

[GetOffYourGas]

I haven’t encountered them myself, just basing my statement off of recent PlugShare checkins.

[GRA]

40/month through June seems highly ambitious still. I doubt they will hit 300 operational stations by then. But there is a good chance they will have started the process on all of them at least. I wish them luck. Non-Tesla EV drivers are counting on them.

The reason I think it's possible is that they opened 30 in January, and to my surprise more than half of those (e.g. Dell, MT) were north of my semi-arbitrary freeze line, the 37th parallel, which runs along the northern borders of AZ, NM and OK. The line moves north along the Atlantic and Pacific coasts and south in the mountains, but I think 37N is a reasonable average - here's a US gov't frost map: http://www.hammerpedia.com/frost-line-map/

So, something like 25" to 30" frost depth equates to my freeze line.

[GRA]

And if Tesla had opened those sites in 2018/2019 with a $2B budget you might have a point.

Does a buyer care, or do they just want the infrastructure available ASAP? Of course it's $2 billion over 10 years, divided into four 30-month tranches of $500 million each of which California gets $200 million per tranche, and we've seen very little of that as yet owing to permitting hassles. Subtracting that $200 million/four QC sites (I'm ignoring the other work being done), that's 101 sites and counting for something well under $300 million. Considering what the delay to the Model X and Model 3 cost Tesla, $300 mil is (relatively) peanuts.

Is a caveman making fire any more notable than my success with a match ? After all, everybody else just wants to be warm.

Your "reasoning" is nonsensical.

You've lost me with your analogy. You have a Tesla, and thus you already have a QC infrastructure (built up over 6+ years) that allows long range driving in many areas. People who need that infrastructure for non-Tesla and in many cases more affordable BEVs care about a widespread CCS/CHAdeMO QC network, and EA is unquestionably building that infrastructure far faster than Tesla built theirs, which is what the customers care about. Could Tesla have built the SC network sooner if they hadn't thrown away over a year and only they know how much money developing unnecessary, heavy, expensive, slow-operating and unreliable Falcon Wing Doors for the Model X? Of course they could.

[GetOffYourGas]

40/month through June seems highly ambitious still. I doubt they will hit 300 operational stations by then. But there is a good chance they will have started the process on all of them at least. I wish them luck. Non-Tesla EV drivers are counting on them.

The reason I think it's possible is that they opened 30 in January, and to my surprise more than half of those (e.g. Dell, MT) were north of my semi-arbitrary freeze line, the 37th parallel, which runs along the northern borders of AZ, NM and OK. The line moves north along the Atlantic and Pacific coasts and south in the mountains, but I think 37N is a reasonable average - here's a US gov't frost map: http://www.hammerpedia.com/frost-line-map/

So, something like 25" to 30" frost depth equates to my freeze line.

I don't disagree that it's possible. I just think it's highly ambitious, and unlikely.

But to your point, Herkimer NY was built out during the winter. When I stopped through in late December to check out the progress, there were two men working on it. It was 20F and snowing at the time. It was also about 7pm. That single data point suggests to me that EA is serious about getting thing done. Of course, they only have so much control of the situation. As of MLK weekend, the installation was done, but still not connected to the grid. I have no idea whether they are waiting on inspections or just waiting for National Grid to complete their end of the deal.

[GRA]

I don't disagree that it's possible. I just think it's highly ambitious, and unlikely.

But to your point, Herkimer NY was built out during the winter. When I stopped through in late December to check out the progress, there were two men working on it. It was 20F and snowing at the time. It was also about 7pm. That single data point suggests to me that EA is serious about getting thing done. Of course, they only have so much control of the situation. As of MLK weekend, the installation was done, but still not connected to the grid. I have no idea whether they are waiting on inspections or just waiting for National Grid to complete their end of the deal.

BTW, now that Cheektowaga is open, you could shuffle off to Buffalo (and return) in your Bolt any time you want. That assumes that anyone who didn't have some mandatory reason to go to Buffalo in the winter would opt to do so. Once they open Albany you'll be freed from your BEV straightjacket both east and west, although Herkimer would make things easier, and also allow you to sing along with the following: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HcNJ2RMOd3U