Why no Chademo in Central Texas?

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rodhugo

New member
Joined
Feb 9, 2014
Messages
4
Anyone have an idea when central Texas (Austin/San Antonio) is getting Chademo chargers? I really want to purchase a Leaf but without the DC chargers it makes trips between Austin and SA a bit tight.
 
For the same reason TX hasn't had any EV rebate/credits (although that may be changing): it's a "big oil" state! Why would they want to promote anyone NOT drinking the "Texas Tea" :p
 
I had not heard of Texas thinking about launching a rebate plan. Can you point me to the details?

Thanks
 
Most of our Chademo chargers around here are installed by EVGO, which is privately funded. I'm honestly not sure why Austin has been left out. It'd be nice if at least Nissan could step in and provide a few.
 
rodhugo said:
I had not heard of Texas thinking about launching a rebate plan. Can you point me to the details?

Thanks

Texas legistlature passed it this last session, but the final "rules" have not been written so its not avialable yet (its $2,500). How its distributed, is it retroactive, what vehicles qualify (i.e. do plug ins count?), is there other limitations, I have no clue. Until the rules are written all that is known is $2,500 per purchase with a max of 3.8 million spent (per year I believe), with the program ending August 31, 2015 (unless its extended).

adric22 said:
Most of our Chademo chargers around here are installed by EVGO, which is privately funded. I'm honestly not sure why Austin has been left out. It'd be nice if at least Nissan could step in and provide a few.

It probably has to do with electric "turf war". eVgo is an NRG company (reliant energy, etc.). NRG is big in Houston and DFW since most of the areas have the provider option. Austin is supplied with Austin Energy and San Antonio is CPS. Neither have the power to choose option (and therefore NRG is non-existant theree). I am betting, because of this, NRG can't (or won't?) build units in these areas. In fact, if you notice, Austin and San Antonio have a BUNCH of ChargePoint stations, but almost no Blink units (opposite of the rest of the state). Thats because Austin Energy and CPS made a deal with ChargePoint and the stations are implemented through the energy company. Its almost like cable companies, why move into an area to "compete" with someone when you can just focus on your areas or claiming areas without anything yet.

As for the Nissan Dealerships? I don't know what the deciding factor for them to install DC Fast chargers. It seemed they were almost avoiding Texas - maybe because NRG has dominance here? There is most likely A LOT more going on in the background than we know of.
 
I have a LEAF & live in San Antonio. I made it to 6th street in Austin from my house but had about 8% battery power. I left during rush hour and was only doing about 25-35 around 1604/35 area. I plugged in at whole foods on 6th street in Austin. I have been writing emails asking both Nissan of San Marcos and Charge Point to add Chademo chargers along the I-35 corridor. Town North Nissan in Austin says that they will have a working Chademo charger by Saturday February 22, 2014. It remains to be seen if they meet that deadline or not. I certainly hope so because it would allow us to quick charge when arriving from San Antonio. I have also emailed Buc-ee's in New Braunfels to see if they have plans on installing a Chademo charger in that HUGE gas station of theirs. No reply so far. We need Chademo Chargers in South Central Texas.
 
Thanks for the replies. :).

I will be glad to send some emails as well. Do you mind sharing the places and email addresses to whom you sent. I will pile-on.
 
This weekend I discovered a car show which happens every Saturday here in San Antonio at the Texaco on 151 & Potranco. I took advantage of the opportunity and parked my LEAF alongside other vehicles to educate people about EV’s and raise awareness. I was the only EV there but surprisingly drew more attention than I expected. This car show is every Saturday and I’d like to invite other EV drivers to bring their cars out to show, Teslas, LEAFs, RAV4 EV’s both classic and new, Mitsubishi iMEVs, Ford Focus Electrics anyone with a plug. I think it would be exciting to show that we are just as proud of our vehicles as those who do classic restorations or heavy modifications and educate people who have no idea this technology exists. Let me know if anyone with a plug can come out and join me.

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Joshcom88 said:
This weekend I discovered a car show which happens every Saturday at the Texaco on 151 & Potranco.

Do you realize we have NO idea where this is (TX is a big place) :?: You have no location info in your profile, so I can't even guess :!:
 
Town North Nissan is in the process of getting a CHAdeMO charger. I just looked up permits and it says they passed final inspection on it about a week ago. It still might not be operational though because they might be waiting on Austin Energy to put the final meter in for them.
 
I would guess the one at Town North will probably be operational within the next few weeks (if it isn't already). On a related note, I emailed Austin energy asking about the installation of additional CHAdeMO chargers in Austin. The guy I emailed said that South Point Nissan is going to install one too; I have no idea on the timing. He also mentioned that there's some chance that another CHAdeMO charger would be installed at the Highland ACC location (near I-35 & 290).
 
I emailed CPS Energy here in San Antonio. This was the reply:

" Josh,

Thank you for your interest in the electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure for San Antonio and for your request for Level 3 charging stations. CPS Energy is currently researching EV charging trends in the area to determine if and where Level 3 charging would be appropriate. There are several factors, which will impact the organizations decision and one of them is certainly customer requests.

We have not made any decisions to install or not to install Level 3 charging stations at this time. Please feel free to contact me directly in the future for updates on our progress towards a decision.

Best regards,

Eddie J. Kirby, MSESM
Strategic Research & Innovation Manager
Technology & Innovation
[email protected] "

I expect it may be some time before we see Chademo in San Antonio.

I also emailed the Tanger Outlet mall in San Marcos at this was the reply:

" Dear Josh,

Thank you for your kind email regarding charging stations at our center in San Marcos, TX. We are currently evaluating all charging options and are in the process of testing a universal charging system in the Atlanta, GA area. It’s great to know that there is demand in San Marcos as well and I will make sure that we add San Marcos, TX as a phase in our next roll out.

I’m curious to ask…our current partner for our test is a company called Charge Point. Are you familiar with their products? Their charging network? As an EV driver I would love your feedback on this if you are willing to provide it.

I can be reached using the contact information below. Please feel free to contact me if you feel so inclined.

Thank you very much for taking the time to reach out to us here at Tanger. We appreciate all of our shoppers and their comments on how we can improve our shopping centers.


Best Regards,


Ryan Byler, CSM
Director of Operations
Tanger Outlet Centers®
3200 Northline Avenue, Suite 260 Greensboro, NC 27408 "
 
Hey I just wanted to let everyone know that I called Town North Nissan today and they confirmed their Chademo charger is up & running! Ill be heading to Austin today from San Antonio to try it out to 80% then charge up at whole foods to 100% for the trip back down to San Antonio! I also called South Point Nissan and spoke to the GM. He says they just got a bid for their Chademo and should be up by end of July.
No plans yet for Chademo in San Antonio. :(
 
Thanks for the update. That is good news Austin is finally getting Chademo! It would be nice if there were plans for units in San Marcos or New Braunfels. That would make the trip a no-brainer.

Please give us an update once you make your trip to Austin.
 
San Marcos Nissan says they have "no plans" to install a Chademo due to low LEAF sales in SM. I was disappointed to hear that. I also emailed Tanger Outlets and got this reply:

"Josh

Thanks for all the information listed below. The issue that we’re running into is that while level two chargers have been standardized across all vehicles, we still have competing formats (CHAdeMO, SAE Combo, etc) for level 3 chargers. These types of stations are extremely expensive and I’d like to see some standardization from the electric vehicle industry before I invest an extremely large amount of money per station for the DC quick charge options.

Your feedback is greatly appreciated. "

So it will probably be a while before we see any in San Marcos, New Braunfels, or San Antonio.
 
Hey I just wanted to update everyone that "Clay Cooley Nissan" in South Austin now has a 36kw CHAdeMO charger. From downtown San Antonio doing 50-60mph on 35, I can make it to Clay Cooley with 12% left on my battery, top off with CHAdeMO, then enjoy Austin. Also, it is not locked behind a gate so the charger is accessible after the dealer is closed. Town North Nissan also agreed to leave 1 gate open by the service bay so that LEAF's can access the CHAdeMO charger there. So far i've used both CHAdeMO's & it makes trips between Austin/San Antonio possible.
 
I knew buying in that an EV would be less convenient for sure so I'm not really that upset. However, I really did believe that L3 equipment would be more prevalent than I have found it to be in the real world.

Living in D/FW is great as there are many chargers around and several very convenient for me. However, I AM a little disppointed (and annoyed with myself for not verifying) what I was told by the salesman: that "most Cracker Barrel locations have quick chargers". The truth is that it's very few locations and only in the certain areas like D/FW. I was initially under the impression that I would be able to take the car from the Colleyville, TX area to places like Winstar Casino (I still can't believe they don't have any L2 or L3 chargers there) and with a couple of stops for charging to my brother's house in New Braunfels. Neither of those turned out to be true at least not conveniently. Due to a lack of L3 charging, a round-trip to Winstar would be about 5+ hours (should be less than 3for sure) and New Braunfels a whopping 20+ (should be less than About 8). There isn't a single L3 charging location between Burleson and Austin (about 175 miles) as I'm sure everyone knows. If there were one in Waco and one in Georgetown, that would be perfect. I wouldn't mind one L2 stop if I didn't have to "fill up" for 4 hours but as it is now, unless I'm staying a week or more I'll need to take an ICE or it just won't be worth it. I'm glad you south and central Texas folks are starting to get some L3 down there. It makes all the difference in the world. Hopefully soon we'll be able to get all the way down I35 to Corpus on L3 but I aint holdin' my breath!

Also, I know there are folks on here that have driven between Austin and D/FW. I'm new to the EV and calculated my times on my experiences so far. How long does it REALLY take? Where did you stop to charge? I still want to do it but I don't want to take 10 hours to get there!
 
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