Charging Leaf at Denver Airport - a suggestion

[Flatirons]

I left my 4 day old Leaf at Denver Airport while flying out of town for couple of days. I live about 35-40 miles from the Airport.
Just to be safe, I felt that I should charge my Leaf at the Airport. As I am new to Leaf, I am not sure of the range I would get.
My quick search led me to Canopy Airport Parking as the only place with Charging stations at the Airport.

So, I parked my Car at Canopy Airport Paring. They had 3 Charging stations in the Covered Parking and 2 in Valet Parking area.
I assumed that I should be able to Charge it in the Covered Parking area which is slightly cheaper than the Valet Parking area.

So, I go to Covered Parking area. To my surprise, all the Charging stations are taken by Chevy Volts. I saw about 4-6 Volts,and Mitsubishi iMEV in that row. I decided to charge it on my return and hoped that one will free up.

None of the Charging stations are free even after my return.

So, my suggestion is to park in Valet Parking area if you need to recharge your Leaf or EV. I spoke with the Valet area manager and he said that they will charge your EV when you are away. It is only few more bucks to park in Valet area.

 

[reeler]

Canopy also has 110V outlets in the covered parking on the side of the charging stations if you want to use your portable unit. For security, I run the cord under a tire to be sure no one steals it. Trickle charge works good for any trip.

Also, with your Frontier frequent flyer number, they will give you coupons to get valet parking for the price of covered on top of 100 points from Frontier. Additionally, you can get a discount with your Express Toll transponder and a coupon from expresstoll.com

Canopy is great.

 

[GREENEV]

Chevy Volts shouldn't be hogging up the EV chargers at Canopy. That's ridiculous. They can run on GASOLINE, we can't. They can only go about 30-40 miles on electric-right? Most people live more than that from the airport.

I've been bugging the E-470 Commission quite a bit about installing L2 or L3 DCQC chargers along the E-470. They have made notes, but I'm not holding my breath.

Please email them or write them on Facebook. The one with the squeakiest wheel gets the most grease.

 

[DrInnovation]

Chevy Volts shouldn't be hogging up the EV chargers at Canopy. That's ridiculous. They can run on GASOLINE, we can't. They can only go about 30-40 miles on electric-right? Most people live more than that from the airport.

I've been bugging the E-470 Commission quite a bit about installing L2 or L3 DCQC chargers along the E-470. They have made notes, but I'm not holding my breath.

Please email them or write them on Facebook. The one with the squeakiest wheel gets the most grease.

Well as a Volt that has parked there, I'll start by saying I paid more to park there than I would at DIA economy parking or Parking Spot, so I effectively paid to charge (which I'm willing to do since they have renewable sources). If canopy said no volt, I would simply choose to park someplace else. I expect they realize that the EV charging spots are bringing them some added business -- and if they keep getting full maybe they'll just put in more.
There are 4 stations in covered (charging 8 cars) and 2 in Valet.

I come from monument, so its 65 miles to canopy. I've made it on all EV once, and missed it by 1.5 miles another time.
If I charge I make it about 45 miles of the return trip (its 2000' uphill) on EV, and 20 on gas. A bit more than 30-40 miles.
And by charging there it lets me make the 130mile R/T on less than .5 gallons.


But I'll also add that you might want to check the windshield of the cars to see if they say its okay to unplug them.. Most of the time when I'm there, I've left a "EV courtesy" car on the dash saying its fine to unplug me if the green light is flashing. I know at least one other driver that does the same.
It would be good to have something more noticeable, but I tried it on the back window and its too hard to see (its tinted). Too bad the juice bar's don't light up or something when "charged"

Also did you know you can "reserve" an EV parking spot (I think you can reserve it upto 2 weeks in advance.). So if you want to be sure to get a charger, reserve online (you need to provide arrival and departure time). Also if you reserve they really know more people are using them. I've suggested to canopy via email they should have a stated policy that they can unplug you once charged and that when one reserves an EV spot they should provide arrival, expected charged and departure times, even for the covered parking area and then they could have an attendent go by every now and then and unplug people, or even have a schedule they give the driver so they can do it sometime.

@reeler.. thanks.. I'll see if I can use those coupons too.