BC L3 Quick Charge Station Status

Lots of news!

Science World paperwork is complete.

Kamloops is ready to be powered up.

Merritt is getting ready installation of electronically equipment, foundation is complete.

North Van paperwork is done.

Kamloops is operational. Good luck getting there!

Kamloops isn't within range for most of the EV's within the Province or Washington State. Yes to most people it seems silly that the Kamloops DC charger is online, when it seems impossible for people with EV's to get to it (today).

But we should not be giving ammo to those who would like to discredit the entire EV movement. Kamloops was the last site to be accepted into the initial 13 chargers, and to their credit, they were able to finalize all the legal paperwork, and get the electrical upgrades, and have the charger in the ground in the shortest amount of time. I wish all the municipalities were so willing to getting the job done!

BC Hydro is working on a solution that will allow EV's to get over the Coquihalla, adding 2 charging stations on the Coquihalla Highway, one northbound and one southbound. BCAA and VEVA are working on some real world EV driving tests to determine if the Summit is too far for a LEAF from Hope, this will help BC Hydro find the correct location for the charging stations.

That will leave just the hypermiling between Langley and Hope to be addressed.

I have asked for the community to be included in future infrastructure planning, as I think the community could be "boots on the ground" to find suitable locations, and help convince those locations to install the infrastructure. I'm not sure if they are taking my suggestion seriously, as they have not replied to my email.

In the Plugshare description for most of these DCQCs, it mentions "Funded by the Province of B.C. and the Government of Canada."

Does anyone know the extent of Ottawa's contribution?

The initial funding is coming from the BC Government, and the Federal government will be "matching" the funds, that is why the program is broken into 2 parts, the first part was for 13 chargers, and the second part is for 17 chargers (assuming the chargers will be cheaper by the time they have to buy them)

kcarmich said:

The initial funding is coming from the BC Government, and the Federal government will be "matching" the funds

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Ontario and Quebec have no DCQC, except for one at a Mitsubishi dealer outside of Toronto.

Quebec will finally be installing a few next year, but has cited high cost as a reason delaying their deployment. Therefore, I'm wondering why they can't get Federal funds as well, in order to speed up the process.

Berlino said:

kcarmich said:

The initial funding is coming from the BC Government, and the Federal government will be "matching" the funds

Click to expand...

Ontario and Quebec have no DCQC, except for one at a Mitsubishi dealer outside of Toronto.

Quebec will finally be installing a few next year, but has cited high cost as a reason delaying their deployment. Therefore, I'm wondering why they can't get Federal funds as well, in order to speed up the process.

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The federal money comes in following fiscal years, it wont help speed anything up, and it comes with strings attached,

maybe they are delaying because they dont want to have to deploy CHAdeMO and Frankenplug chargers.

in BC they were required to install CHAdeMO to complete the west coast green highway

I just used the level three charge at Powersmart and found that the key tag Greenlots sent me did not work. I had to use the iphone app. Their website no longer has information about the key tag. Has anyone else had this problem and has the tag ben D/Ced?

kcarmich said:

maybe they are delaying because they dont want to have to deploy CHAdeMO and Frankenplug chargers.

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The five or six quick chargers scheduled to be installed this year on A40 between Montreal and Quebec City will all be dual standard CCS/CHAdeMO.

Berlino said:

The five or six quick chargers scheduled to be installed this year on A40 between Montreal and Quebec City will all be dual standard CCS/CHAdeMO.

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right ... as I said ... they didn't want to have to duplicate their effort by installing chademo chargers then having to install a second charger when the new Frankenplug standard chargers were available. The ABB DC chargers that support both standards with 1 unit, those wont be available till about May.

No sign of level 3 charge at science world in Vancouver. Anyone know anything about it?

evken said:

No sign of level 3 charge at science world in Vancouver. Anyone know anything about it?

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Stay tuned till after May

Updated the original post... Meritt has been operational for a while. BCIT expected April 1st, currently testing..

Hello all, I have been deciding whether to purchase a Nissan LEAF for a new job I am about to start in April. I've been investigating the possibilities of road-trips with the car as well, as we prefer to be a one-car family. To that end, I have been working on a spreadsheet of how to get from Nelson to the Island and back again this summer (you can find it here -> https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/62839980/Electric%20Car%20Trip%20Planner.xlsx" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false.

I've also been hunting around trying to find information on the L3 stations that appear on Plugshare. I found an article on the Surrey station at Powertech Labs, and after following a few more links realized they are (more or less?) a part of BC Hydro. Not knowing who to contact for further information, I worked through the "Contact Us" box for BC Hydro and submitted my thoughts on L3 deployment in BC. (I put a link to my spreadsheet in my feedback - if you look at it, you'll see a rough draft on how to travel using current infrastructure, what it would be like with some additional key L2 stations installed, and what it would be like with L3 stations.)

Having found this forum today, I also found this thread! I see in the first post that the 13 stations noted later in the thread are accounted for, and that there seem to be two additional ones. What about the other 15-17 stations? Is anyone aware of a list or a map? I hope there is still some chance to provide feedback. It seems that there is too much emphasis on putting the L3s in the metropolitan area and not enough on highway corridors. I really don't see the need for multiple stations within that tight of a radius.

If BC isn't careful, we'll end up like California, with all the charging infrastructure too concentrated, and not spread out enough like Washington and Oregon. We dearly want to remain a one-car family, and that won't happen unless the infrastructure is deployed along highway routes. (Unless someone wants to give me 100k for a Tesla of course! )

Hey all,

I stopped in to Uptown here in Victoria a week ago and saw no signs of construction... spoke with the customer service girls and got the same response as above (still in negotiations with Saanich and BC Hydro) and (she whispered) it may even be a fast charging station! haha....

My hunch is that any new stations have been put on hold so they can be dual plugs with SAE Combo like we're starting to see in the States.... would be nice to hear something from Hydro though...

tantousha said:

My hunch is that any new stations have been put on hold so they can be dual plugs with SAE Combo like we're starting to see in the States.... would be nice to hear something from Hydro though...

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This is one of the excuses that Hydro-Quebec has used in the past to explain why the absence of Quick Chargers.

If it's really true, that means that the many LEAF, i-MiEV and soon Model S (with adapter) drivers are being made to wait because of a supposed need for SAE/Combo.

Meanwhile, there are virtually no SAE/Combo vehicles in private hands in Canada.

Berlino said:

This is one of the excuses that Hydro-Quebec has used in the past to explain why the absence of Quick Chargers.

If it's really true, that means that the many LEAF, i-MiEV and soon Model S (with adapter) drivers are being made to wait because of a supposed need for SAE/Combo.

Meanwhile, there are virtually no SAE/Combo vehicles in private hands in Canada.

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I did get to test drive the i3 last weekend at the Vancouver auto show, and I must admit it's a nice car... That said, a major sticking point is that it uses the SAE Combo plug. I feel sorry for the buyer's getting the first i3's in May... I can already see some of them rolling up to the CHAdeMO station trying to figure out how to plug it in haha...

Looks to be some movement with The Langley Event Centre charge station....

I Drove past the other day and BC Hydro trucks were parked in the front pull-out on 200th working on
what looks like a charge station on the grassy area right in front of a couple parking stalls....

FINGERS CROSSED !!!!!!! I will take a drive inside next time i'm in the area and post an update.....

christrit said:

Looks to be some movement with The Langley Event Centre charge station....

I Drove past the other day and BC Hydro trucks were parked in the front pull-out on 200th working on
what looks like a charge station on the grassy area right in front of a couple parking stalls....

FINGERS CROSSED !!!!!!! I will take a drive inside next time i'm in the area and post an update.....

Click to expand...

Nice!

Now if only we could the Nissan dealerships to install QC stations in their dealerships haha... Someday.

I met project engineer from Powertech when charging my leaf at L3 there, they are involved with L3 installations in BC.
When I ask for next L3 to be installed , he told me only one L3 in North Vancouver is coming up next.