avilent
Member
I realize that many have experienced frustrations in joining the EV Project in the SF Bay Area, so I wanted to share a story which may give you hope about the Ecotality and the EV Project.
Some background: We are two early technology adopters who live in the same condo complex in the SF Bay Area. We learned about the Leaf in April 2010 and convinced each other to replace our gas guzzling BMWs and Volvos with Leafs. We tried to reserve the Leafs on April 20 2010, but having missed the first window of opportunity to reserve we entered the waiting list and on May 15 2010 we each reserved Leafs (SL).
We documented the EVSE install plan, sent it to the condo HOA for approval and asked for a decision by the end of the summer. The document explained what is an EVSE, described safety issues, government involvement and that power consumption would be paid by individual owners and installation performed by certified contractors. I will gladly share these documents with others who need to seek HOA approval.
In July we went through the process of getting bids for the EVSE install. AV sent two contractors for the assessment and after a few months of reminders they send bids for installing two EVSEs. The project is complex as it involved intercepting the main power line between the building's electrical room and the individual condo units, installing a new power panel and running about 100 feet of ceiling mounted conduits between the electrical room and the parking stalls. AV's bid was more than $6K for installing two EVSE or $4.3K for installing one.
By the end of the Summer the HOA approved the EVSE installation.
In December Nissan allowed the order the first Leaf and in January we ordered the second Leaf. Both cars were ordered with the QC option. Given AV's high cost for our EVSE we reluctantly decided to share one EVSE for both Leafs and scheduled the AV install for late February.
As we learned that the EV project had been extended to the SF Bay Area on Feb 2 2011, we contacted Ecotality and Nissan's CS and asked if they could arrange for our Leafs to be added to the EV project. The Ecotality staff was exceptional (Many thanks to Paula Smith). After a few emails and phone calls by Feb 26 2011 our ETec questionnaires were received and accepted.
Meanwhile, on Feb 8th Nissan advised us that the 2nd Leaf (ordered in January) would arrive on/around April 27th and subsequently that the 1st Leaf (ordered in December) would arrive on/around May 23rd.
Delighted by the news of the upcoming deliveries, we became anxious to arrange for the EVSE installed and started to look for an experienced electrical contractor who could install both EVSEs under the EV project at a reasonable cost. We found an amazing father and son company (Electrical Vehicle Installation Specialists – Robert Whiteaker Owner – 415-933-0551) who has significant experience in installing EVSE’s for Teslas, Leafs and other EVs. Robert and his team surveyed our condo building and designed a practical plan to install both EVSEs and yet simplify the install of additional EVSEs by other residents. Robert’s plan was not only clean and appealing it was also dramatically cheaper than the AV bid: $2850 for installing both EVSEs (labor, panels, conduits and all other parts). I introduced Robert to Ecotality and within 10 days he was trained and performing Blink installations.
On March 25th in the morning both of our Leaf buyers returned the participation agreements and by late afternoon Robert and the awesome team at Electrical Vehicle Installation Specialists has performed the complex project. Both EVSEs were up and running by 5:45pm. As an EE, I have high expectations for design and implementation of electrical projects. The quality of the work from Robert’s team was flawless.
I realize that the journey to Leaf ownership is a long one and we have all experienced many delays and communications have not always been meeting our expectations, but I am very impressed that Ecotality was able to start adding EV Project participants in the Bay Area within a few weeks of the approval of the Bay Area Clean Air Management District.
Our journey isn’t complete, we have yet to take delivery of the Leafs and hope our Japanese friends can quickly recovery from the March 11th catastrophes.
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