Inquiries into charging stations at local shopping centers

[lpickup]

Now that I am the proud owner of a new LEAF, my new hobby is contacting local shopping centers (malls, etc.) and inquiring about whether they have EV charging stations at their locations. Once they get back to me, I take the opportunity to let them know that a wave of new EVs have started to be delivered in my state and the people that installed my charging station let me know that they've been doing several installs a day in town, and that the local utility has a pilot program that they may qualify for. With the holidays coming up, it's a great excuse to educate stores that a charging station might be a good idea, so I suggest we all take up this hobby!

Here is the text of my initial contact:

Hello, I am now driving an electric vehicle (EV) and
planning to do some holiday shopping at name of shopping center. Can you tell
me if there are any EV charging stations located at name of shopping center
and if so, where are they located? I will probably be in range, but my wife
(who commutes to work in the car) needs to work late and that will not give
me an opportunity to top off the battery before heading out, so it would be
good to know that there was charging available in case I need it. I don't
see any charging stations listed on any of the online sites, but given that
the first EVs such as the Nissan LEAF have just recently started being
delivered to North Carolina and many new charging stations are just now
going up, I thought I would check with you directly. Thanks,

I was pleasantly surprised that one of the shopping centers (and in fact the one I am definitely going to tomorrow night) said that they do in fact have some charging stations installed but that they are not quite ready to be turned on, but hope to have them turned on by next week. Bummer that they won't be available tomorrow, but great news anyway!

 

[TonyWilliams]

I spend a lot of time doing something similar here in San Diego....