Leaf visits Route 66 "Midpoint Cafe"

[AmarilloLeaf]

If you have driven on Route 66, the halfway point is in Adrian, Texas.




While at Midpoint, there were numerous tourists for foreign countries (the Germans seem to love Rt 66) and about 10 bikers. The bikers spotted the Leaf first, and were amazed to see an electric car way out here in the middle of nowhere.

I ran into Fran, the owner of the Midpoint Cafe, in their gift shop. She asked where I was from, since I looked like a tourist with my UC San Diego t-shirt on. I told her I was driving an electric car to get an idea about the range on it. She had apparently just seen the Zero ads on TV from Nissan, and was thrilled to see her first electric vehicle at her Cafe. She brought all of her waitresses to the front to see the car. She apparently had already been contacted by somebody about setting up a charging station, but I don't think there will be much electric traffic there soon.

BTW, I can highly recommend the Midpoint Cafe. Great pies, and super friendly staff.

Upon arrival home, I had 14 miles of range left, so I'm glad I topped off during the drive. It probably added about 12 - 14 miles of range for me.

[Azrich]

Great story and photos!!! I was surprised the owner of the cafe had been approached to install a charger already. I like the "ELECTRIC" letters on the back of your hatchback door. We've been thinking about doing that. I also considered putting them just below where you did, on the bumper just above the plate. Any suggestions?

Thanks again for the Route 66 story.

[TRONZ]

Very nice! Interestingly, I have charged my LEAF at the end of 66 on the Santa Monica pier. We need someone to charge a LEAF at the start point in Chicago.

[smkettner]

That would be a great project to have charging at least every 80 miles along the parts of this highway that still exist.

[AmarilloLeaf]

Great story and photos!!! I was surprised the owner of the cafe had been approached to install a charger already. I like the "ELECTRIC" letters on the back of your hatchback door. We've been thinking about doing that. I also considered putting them just below where you did, on the bumper just above the plate. Any suggestions?

Thanks again for the Route 66 story.

If you get the letters already spaced for you, you could leave them in their carrier and tape them into various places to see which you like the best. The installation was relatively easy with that. I measured where to place the letters and used a level to be sure they were straight.

[Boomer23]

Very nice story and pics. It's great to see the Ingineer modified EVSE being used to help extend range mid-route like this.

[TRONZ]

Very nice story and pics. It's great to see the Ingineer modified EVSE being used to help extend range mid-route like this.

I am not an EE but IMHO Nissan should make all their included portable chargers L1/L2. Must have had something to do with negotiating market turf with AV.

[leafnode]

@ AmarilloLeaf - excellent thread! Thanks for sharing!

[Herm]

I am not an EE but IMHO Nissan should make all their included portable chargers L1/L2. Must have had something to do with negotiating market turf with AV.

Not allowed by the code, Nissan would get sued out of existence the moment someone took a sip of coffee that was too hot. I dont know how Inginier (sip) gets away with it.

I think the code is archaic.

[garygid]

Correction:
A properly designed L1/L2 plug-in EVSE for indoor use IS allowed by code (NEC625.13 as I recall).

Hopefully, SPX will "soon" bring one such EVSE to market.