SF Bay Area as EV capital with major investment in QC

[Aeolus]

Ran across this article on my BrightSpot FaceBook feed. New money for charging infrastructure in NorCal.

The Bay Area wants to be known at the “Electric Vehicle (EV) capital of the United States.” To that end, area elected and business leaders recently announced the launch of a CEO-level “EV Strategic Council” along with $5 million in new funding.

Led by the region’s big city mayors, regional officials and cleantech industry executives, the Bay Area EV Strategic Council aims to develop the infrastructure needed for an influx of new electric vehicles now available and soon to arrive from GM, Nissan, Tesla, Toyota, Mitsubishi, Ford, BMW and others.

The EV Strategic Council is starting its life with full coffers, announcing $1.5 million from the California Energy Commission – supplemented by $2.5 million in local public and private funds – to install more than 300 new public EV chargers, including 19 fast chargers capable of recharging a Nissan Leaf in 20 minutes.

http://www.mnn.com/green-tech/trans...isco-aims-to-be-countrys-electric-car-capital

 

[KeiJidosha]

Ran across this article on my BrightSpot FaceBook feed. New money for charging infrastructure in NorCal.

The Bay Area wants to be known at the “Electric Vehicle (EV) capital of the United States.” To that end, area elected and business leaders recently announced the launch of a CEO-level “EV Strategic Council” along with $5 million in new funding.

Led by the region’s big city mayors, regional officials and cleantech industry executives, the Bay Area EV Strategic Council aims to develop the infrastructure needed for an influx of new electric vehicles now available and soon to arrive from GM, Nissan, Tesla, Toyota, Mitsubishi, Ford, BMW and others.

The EV Strategic Council is starting its life with full coffers, announcing $1.5 million from the California Energy Commission – supplemented by $2.5 million in local public and private funds – to install more than 300 new public EV chargers, including 19 fast chargers capable of recharging a Nissan Leaf in 20 minutes.

http://www.mnn.com/green-tech/trans...isco-aims-to-be-countrys-electric-car-capital

Needs participation (cooperation and concessions on demand charges) from PG&E utilities to be successful.

 

[glemieux]

Just saw this on plugincars.com:

“We haven't installed any DC Fast Charge units in the Bay Area yet,” writes Smith, “But I have signed contracts with the Volkswagen Electronics Research Lab in Belmont, and Sunset Development (Bishop Ranch) in San Ramon. Both of these will be installed sometime in January depending on the permitting.”

I'm guessing it depends greatly on PG&E as well, but I'm cautiously optimistic. A DCFC station in Belmont would have come in really handy over the holidays while I was visiting family in the south peninsula this past week.

 

[planet4ever]

I think they must have picked the Belmont and San Ramon locations specifically with me in mind.

• The Belmont charger will be a bit less than 50 miles from my home, and 50 miles round trip from most of San Francisco. Perfect for, say, a day trip up to the Exploratorium or Pier 39. My first guess: Starting from home with 100%, 15 minutes on the way up to boost to 80%, 25 minutes on the way back, though I could unplug early if I'm willing to drive slowly.
• The Bishop Ranch charger will be about 56 miles from home, and 57 miles round trip from our granddaughter's home in Antioch. We made that trip once in the LEAF by staying overnight at a hotel close to the Nissan dealer, but this will make a day trip possible.

And here I thought I didn't even want the QC port and would probably never use it. Pass the crow, please.

Ray

 

[glemieux]

The locations do seem to be pretty nicely located. If Nissan Santa Rosa does come through with one of the lower cost Nissan DCFCs (as suggested in their description on plugshare.com) and maybe Nissan San Jose too, that alone would open up a majority of the Bay Area to EVs with the CHADeMO standard port. There would be DCFCs north, south, east and west of the bay.

 

[yoyofella]

According to an email I received today from Jason Smith, Ecotality’s Northern California area manager, that could change as early as next month, when DC Fast Chargers will be installed in Belmont and San Ramon.

It's almost the end of next month (January), can someone living near Belmont or San Ramon comment on the status? Can't wait to finally use that DCFC for the first time.

 

[Spindoctor]

Don't hold your breath. SF announced such a program almost two years ago and have yet to put in the EV structure they claimed would be in place by the end of 2010. The Bay Area Air Quality Management District is partially in charge of putting all of this together. They just provided me a response today as to when we can expect any more L2's or any L3's in the Bay Area:

"In terms of the EV charging program, their (sic) have been contracting issues which have significantly delayed the implementation of the program. We are hopeful that things will be worked out and ready to go by the end of the year. That's only a guess. Programs in other states are largely funded by the federal government, and are different from what is being coordinated here in the Bay Area. If you have any additional questions, feel free to contact the Air District at 415.749.4900."

 

[glemieux]

On a random whim I decided to call Nissan Santa Rosa and find out the status of getting a DC fast charging station there. I talked to David, their resident Leaf salesperson, and he was a wealth of info! They've already got the setup pre-wired and ready to go, although I didn't think to ask if they actually had the actual EVSE hardware installed too and whether it was Blink, Aerovironment, or Nissan harware. The holdup, if I understand this correctly, is with the county and they've been basically ready to go for a few months now. I should have had him clarify more, but I was so stoked I got someone on the phone who had info it slipped my mind. I did get an ETA and he said end of March 2012. The big thing that surprised me is that they'll be charging to use the EVSE and that it'll be a bit more than the actual cost of the electricity, presumably so that they can recoup the cost of the equipment.

I was really impressed with how forth-coming he was with information and he actually asked a bunch of questions of me to find out in what situations we'd be using the Nissan charging station and offering other solutions like plugshare.com for finding people willing to help us out. This was even after finding out we didn't by our Leaf from him and we live in Berkeley. Very good salesmanship if you ask me.

 

[Phoenix]

Santa Rosa Nissan's DC Fast Charger (dual-head Blink) has been up and running since mid-July. Very hospitable place. Blink has worked reliably every time I have been there. It's possible that a hosted site with personnel on location may have a better track record than stand-alone Blink units (VWERL & Bishop Ranch) at this stage of QC infrastructure.