San Francisco Bay Area Quick Chargers Getting them sooner

[Herm]

The sales pitch, as delivered to one of the potential buyers, the sit-down casual restaurant owner:

A 20kW Chademo charger would be great for a restaurant owner, you know the driver will go in and buy something during that hour charge time.. KA-CHING!

Just make sure its not ICED.

 

[edatoakrun]

The sales pitch, as delivered to one of the potential buyers, the sit-down casual restaurant owner:

A 20kW Chademo charger would be great for a restaurant owner, you know the driver will go in and buy something during that hour charge time...

Actually, you don't.

I recently spoke to the owner of a restaurant who installed a "Tesla" roadster charger.

He got the Charger installed for "free", in return for the "free" kWh, he provides Tesla Drivers.

Apparently, even $100k+ BEV drivers can be cheapskates, at least occasionally, and will just sit in the car, and not even come in to buy a cup of coffee.

IMO, while the fee-per-kWh will probably be as low as possible, to attract BEV drivers to a particular location (not unlike the loss-leader sales tactics Costco and mini-marts use for their gas pumps) a separate charge fee, per kWh, is essential to establishing a functional Charging network, whatever the rate of charge is.

The point is, while I see a case where 10-20 kW charge rate will be "fast enough" in some cases (such as at restaurants, or in lightly-travelled regions locations where sales volume cannot support more expensive 50 kW installations).

I can see no viable economic model for L2 public charging (unless both the L2's and the BEV fleets are designed for faster than 3.3, or even 6.6 kW, charge rates) in the majority of locations they have been placed in so far, in "free" parking lots, providing "free" charging, in front of business's with (typically) very short parking times.

 

[TonyWilliams]

The sales pitch, as delivered to one of the potential buyers, the sit-down casual restaurant owner:

A 20kW Chademo charger would be great for a restaurant owner, you know the driver will go in and buy something during that hour charge time...

Actually, you don't.

I recently spoke to the owner of a restaurant who installed a "Tesla" roadster charger.

He got the Charger installed for "free", in return for the "free" kWh, he provides Tesla Drivers.

Apparently, even $100k+ BEV drivers can be cheapskates, at least occasionally, and will just sit in the car, and not even come in to buy a cup of coffee.

Sad.

 

[TEG]

I tried to use VW ERL Blink again yesterday and both sides were "down".
Different message for each port:

 

[grommet]

San Ramon was "not in service" as well yesterday. It looks like Blink disabled both sites for some reason. Maybe they are waiting for a software update? :roll:

When the units are "not in service", the BlinkMap still says they are "Available". The "Off Network" status seems to only trigger if Blink can't communicate to the device at all.

 

[TimLee]

They might have turned them all off on a nationwide basis.
Athens, TN Cracker Barrel Blink L3 not in service today at 1900.

 

[Herm]

Actually, you don't.
I recently spoke to the owner of a restaurant who installed a "Tesla" roadster charger.
He got the Charger installed for "free", in return for the "free" kWh, he provides Tesla Drivers.
Apparently, even $100k+ BEV drivers can be cheapskates, at least occasionally, and will just sit in the car, and not even come in to buy a cup of coffee.

Have the charger activated from the cash register then, put a notice by the handle to check in with the cashier.. that should shame some 1 percenters that drive Leafs and Teslas, I doubt an iMiev driver would be that nasty.

 

[TEG]

Maybe they are getting ready to switch to pay for use service?
(Although I would expect them to provide reliable service before I considered paying for it.)

 

[leafenvy]

Well, I was going to plan my first DCFC trip this Sunday using the VW DCFC, but I guess I'm going to have to use the 350green at Stanford instead :| . I practically hung up on the operator at the blink network when she told me that it should be fixed 'soon' and that a few days out of service is 'not really that long'. She submitted another 'fix it ticket' since the blink map says that the unit is just fine. Had I just gone by the map and not called ahead, with my itinerary, I would have been stuck out there with a dead battery. If anyone happens to use it successfully before Sunday afternoon please post your experience. Thanks.

 

[GaslessInSeattle]

Maybe it's time to pull the plug on Ecotality? Up here, if an AV DC QC unit is out of order, they fix it right away. The only blink QC we have, arrived "damaged" and has been sitting there idle for weeks/almost months. their overall crap performance is risking the loss of funding for EV infrastructure in general, IMHO. maybe it's time to have them swapped out with Nissan's new unit!!!!

Well, I was going to plan my first DCFC trip this Sunday using the VW DCFC, but I guess I'm going to have to use the 350green at Stanford instead :| . I practically hung up on the operator at the blink network when she told me that it should be fixed 'soon' and that a few days out of service is 'not really that long'. She submitted another 'fix it ticket' since the blink map says that the unit is just fine. Had I just gone by the map and not called ahead, with my itinerary, I would have been stuck out there with a dead battery. If anyone happens to use it successfully before Sunday afternoon please post your experience. Thanks.

 

[grommet]

We have two reports of successful charge events at the Blink unit at Belmont VW ERL from this afternoon. No more "Unavailable" message on the working side. I guess Blink is done with whatever they were doing in the background. Maybe the others are re-enabled as well.

 

[GoingGreener]

At the Belmont QC this morning, the right side (when facing the station) was working.
But the left side's handle was taped and that screen's message indicated servicing was needed.

EDIT: After I finished, I checked the right side screen and it was ready to accept the next Blink user.
Then, heard in afternoon, both Belmont and San Ramon Blink QCs were not available again.

 

[grommet]

The dreadful Yazaki CHAdeMO connector on the left is physically damaged/broken so it can't successfully plug into a LEAF. That's why it's taped off/disabled. It'll get fixed or replaced ($$$$) eventually. (It's been like that for a few weeks.)

 

[GRA]

The dreadful Yazaki CHAdeMO connector on the left is physically damaged/broken so it can't successfully plug into a LEAF. That's why it's taped off/disabled. It'll get fixed or replaced ($$$$) eventually. (It's been like that for a few weeks.)

Perhaps we should start keeping track of what % of Yazaki connectors are U/S, much as we have with Blinks. That design always looked far too susceptible to damage to me, even before we started to get reports of them being broken.

 

[leafenvy]

Well, I was going to plan my first DCFC trip this Sunday using the VW DCFC, but I guess I'm going to have to use the 350green at Stanford instead :| . I practically hung up on the operator at the blink network when she told me that it should be fixed 'soon' and that a few days out of service is 'not really that long'. She submitted another 'fix it ticket' since the blink map says that the unit is just fine. Had I just gone by the map and not called ahead, with my itinerary, I would have been stuck out there with a dead battery. If anyone happens to use it successfully before Sunday afternoon please post your experience. Thanks.

Well, Blink stood me up after all. I stopped by in the hot sun with my whole family in the car only to find 'this port is out of service'. I was fortunately not too surprised based on what I had read here. The 350green luckily worked just fine. My sentiments are quickly turning against Blink :x, although I will say that the free L2 charger I have at home works just fine. Ecotality needs to get their act together pronto if they ever want to compete, but I guess with all those taxpayer dollars they don't really have to sweat it :x. Can someone who knows more than me please tell me that they have an actual fix for their faulty equipment coming very soon? If not, I think they should be reported to the DOE if that is even possible.

 

[qwerty0294]

any update on the belmont charging station?

 

[grommet]

The bulk of Blink DC units are still missing intentionally from the BlinkMap/app... as such, it's best to assume they are not available until they return. Let's hope they are fixing broad stability issues for all of them...

 

[GRA]

Well, I was going to plan my first DCFC trip this Sunday using the VW DCFC, but I guess I'm going to have to use the 350green at Stanford instead :| . I practically hung up on the operator at the blink network when she told me that it should be fixed 'soon' and that a few days out of service is 'not really that long'. She submitted another 'fix it ticket' since the blink map says that the unit is just fine. Had I just gone by the map and not called ahead, with my itinerary, I would have been stuck out there with a dead battery. If anyone happens to use it successfully before Sunday afternoon please post your experience. Thanks.

Well, Blink stood me up after all. I stopped by in the hot sun with my whole family in the car only to find 'this port is out of service'. I was fortunately not too surprised based on what I had read here. The 350green luckily worked just fine. My sentiments are quickly turning against Blink :x, although I will say that the free L2 charger I have at home works just fine. Ecotality needs to get their act together pronto if they ever want to compete, but I guess with all those taxpayer dollars they don't really have to sweat it :x. Can someone who knows more than me please tell me that they have an actual fix for their faulty equipment coming very soon? If not, I think they should be reported to the DOE if that is even possible.

It's possible:

http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=43&t=8254&hilit=open+letter+blink" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

 

[TEG]

any update on the belmont charging station?

It was still down the past few days. I haven't checked today.

Maybe they should give me a key so I can reset the touch screen pad. I watched them do it...
(Easy except you have to recalibrate the touch screen each time.)
It would be nice to have an EV go there to reset it rather than having someone need to drive their gas car just to get the EV charging going again.

(I wonder if that QC has been responsible for more EV miles driven, or more gas miles driven by techs that keep rebooting it?)

 

[walterbays]

Can someone who knows more than me please tell me that they have an actual fix for their faulty equipment coming very soon? If not, I think they should be reported to the DOE if that is even possible.

First I must say, like you, that my home Blink is working fine and I've found their people very helpful and responsive.

As for public charging, their problems are well known, even to DOE http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=43&t=8254. Even when fixes are obvious and simple they don't make them, e.g.,

• Add reset button for software lock-ups
• Turn off RFID authorization until they get it working
• Turn off zip code authorization until they get it working
• Turn off network connection until they get it working

One unit near my work has had an unresponsive touch screen for over 4 months now. A touch screen isn't actually needed to charge a car, but Blink artificially requires it resulting in 4 months of down time, and counting. Two other units are working but have been waiting on city paperwork for over 3 months. Clearly ECOtality doesn't put a lot of priority on keeping the public infrastructure in operation.

However, should a government investigation put ECOtality out of business, it would not be reported as "the company encountered some unforseeable problems and also made some avoidable mistakes" but instead "this whole EV thing is unworkable and ought to be stopped immediately." :-( http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=8513. And should the stock market put ECOtality out of business it's not clear whether they'd be replaced by something better, something worse, or nothing at all.