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OK; Yes, I signed up for my "Free" Blink charger.

Told them I already have a level II all set up, just send me the new one, and I'll switch them.
HaHa.
More to this than meets the eye I think.

SPX is apparently the ONLY way to get it installed.
My install only requires removal of my AV EVSE (2 screws, 3 wires under terminal), and Re-hang the Blink.
Got my estimate today.
Was SOOO Surprised to find that the install cost will be exactly equal to the Project allowance plus the local program incentive: $650.00 !!

Wow, I have to change jobs.

If this takes him an hour, he's sleeping for half of that.

If you are having a problem getting a response, these are good numbers, with responsive people on the other end.

For EV Project / Ecotality;
Mike Schey
Utility Solutions Support
ECOtality North America

e: [email protected]
d: +1.480.719.4792
m: +1.480.440.5678
f: +1.602.457.6719
skype:mike.schey


For Install Setup;
Carolyn McLemore
Vehicle Charging Advisor (VCA)
EV Solutions
SPX Corporation Service Solutions
5800 Enterprise Court
Warren, MI 48092

"McLemore, Carolyn" <[email protected]>
877.805.EVSE (3873)

Hope that Helps.
I usually like to stay under the radar, but since this Ecotality / Blink charger thing has exposed me to EVERYBODY, I signed up for the PECO rebate.
Might as well.
 
Just wanted to say hello to fellow area Leaf enthusiasts!

We have been happily driving our new 2012 Leaf for a few weeks now.

My daily commute from Telford to Ivyland (37 miles, 42 traffic lights, 3.7 mile/kwh and 27 mph average round-trip) is easily done, with usually 40 to 50 miles remaining on the GOM by the end of the day.

Have been charging only at home overnight with the supplied L1 charger, but plan on upgrading to L2 soon.

Although our Leaf originally was intended to be only a commuter car for me on the weekdays, I have found that on the weekend we have been using it much more than our other vehicle (an Explorer) and will be needing the faster recharge times of an L2.

We have two younger kids in car seats / boosters - getting them in and out has been very easy, and there is plenty of room in the hatch area for their stuff when we take extended trips to central NJ.

It's been an interesting experience with a few changes of habit, but so far, has been proven to be a good decision.
 
oakleaf - welcome and congratulations. Just wondering if you drive a red leaf and drive on Wambold Road. (I drive a black 2012 Leaf.) Until recently, I just used the L1 charger, but in the last couple of weeks got my EVSE upgrade. Fortunately the previous owner of our house had a 240 volt, 20 amp line wired into the garage. My brother in law helped me replace the receptacle so it is compatible with the upgrade. The combination works great and its so nice to get faster charging after being used to the L1 since April.

centralpaleaf - From unfortunate experience, if LCCC has L2 chargers, you have to know the secret handshake to find them. Two weeks ago, I picked up my nephew at Lehigh Valley Airport. I didn't have a full charge and left from Blue Bell to the airport, so needed a charge to get back home. I should have stopped at Rothrock, but my ev dashboard showed one at LCCC around the library, so I thought it would be interesting to give that a try. While I encountered some nice people, lets just say that due to some particular school policies I didn't get any help. So, I owed my wife one as she made the drive and picked us up. After sorting out options, I just called the Leaf support line which was great. I figured they would just tow the car to Rothrock, but he offered to tow it right to my house that night! I was really happy about that and both the phone agent and the towing service were great (especially as a free service for first 48 months). Didn't mean to write a novel, but wanted people to know that Lehigh Carbon Community College doesn't have chargers.

Best to all
 
Thanks lwaz12a! Yes, it is a red one and I've been over that way a few times recently, so it could have been us.

Good to know about the LCCC charger situation too.

I've been looking for chargers up around the Quakertown area, but haven't come across any yet. Have you seen any around there?
 
Oakleaf -- I live in Ivyland, about 1/2 block from the fire house. Just wanted you to know there is an L2 chargepoint at my garage... I work at Oxford Valley, so my commute is to the east from here. I've had a black LEAF since Feb. 2012.

The nearest public chargepoint I believe is at O'Neil Nissan on Street Rd., but call ahead if you plan to use it, because they often have cars parked all around it. There's a single L2 at the Walgreens on the corner of Street Rd and Bustleton Ave in Feasterville, it is on the SemaCharge network, you might need a SemaCharge card to access it.

I ended up getting 4 different charging cards so I can access any of the public charging points I might encounter in the area. They are

1. Chargepoint - this is good if you'll be going to center city as there is a bank of 8(!) mostly unused ChargePoints at the Convention Center garage. Enter from Arch St and expect to pay some serious $$, but if you must drive to center city, I've found you can count on this spot. If you want to take the train, there is a single charge point at Wayne Station (was in-use by a Volt the weekend I was there) and 2 at Radnor Station. I don't know of any other outlying SEPTA train stations with EV charging.

2. SemaCharge - There are L2 chargepoints at maybe 1/4 or the Walgreens locations in the greater Philly area. There are 2 SemaCharge units at the KofP mall.

3. Blink - The only one I've personally seen so far is at the PJM conference center in Norristown (IIRC they have 2), but this network might grow since the Ecotality project is now in the Philly area. There is supposed to be one at PECO in Conshohocken, this is a natural gas transmission facility, I drove past it once but was unable to find the chargepoint.

I can't remember the 4th one, I've not used it yet.
 
Hi tps, and thanks for letting me know about your L2 being available!

O'Neil is where we leased our Leaf from - they were very friendly and helpful to us throughout the process.

In addition to the L2 charge points up by the sales floor (and often blocked in by their inventory) there is another set of L2's on the opposite side of the building, but they are also typically blocked by employee and service center parking.

Many thanks as well for the run-down on what's available for charging in the area - good to know what's where and whose charger cards to sign up for.

A few days ago I had emailed CarCharging.com to ask how the PA Turnpike program was going as it would be a real benefit to have available on many of our extended trips. The word back is that the project is still moving forward, but they were still negotiating specific details of the contract.

What I would hope for is that they are installing quick chargers, but that's probably too much to expect...
 
Another Bucks County EV driver...

OK, so I wasn't able to swing a lease on a 2012 Leaf, I was able to do a deal on a 2012 Mitsubishi I-Miev last week. Have been driving it and loving it ever since. Twice now I have passed Leafs in Warrington, don't think the Leaf drivers saw me. Wonder if the black Leaf is TPS'? If you see a white and blue MiEV with the electric car graphics on it in the Warminster area, it's me. Honk and I'll wave!!!

Lou
 
Saw my first couple "Leaf's in the Wild" this week.
I saw a blue one on 320 in Delaware county, and a White one on Mcdade Blvd. near 476.

Nice to see.

Except for my neighbor across the street (red one), I have not run across too many down this way.

Hope to see more of them.

For all you bucks county Leafs, I have a 32 amp Blink L2 located at almost the intersection of I95 and 476.
It's on Plugshare.
Even if I'm plugged in, there is plenty of cable to move it to another car
If you get low, or get adventurous- It's there for you.
 
Sending good thoughts and thanks for Conicelli Nissan.
I really appreciate that they were kind enough to allow me to plug in and give me an hour of charge today. Had a Dr's appointment in the city, I-MiEV was at about 80% SOC. Needed a few extra miles to get from hospital to work in Conshohocken (to later get back to Warminster) so they allowed me to plug in. I know that this is apparently commonplace with Nissan dealers(and other EV mfgrs'), but I didn't want to let the opportunity to thank them pass. By the way, having only Level 1 Trickle charge at home is OK, but Level 2 is soooo much better.
 
Thanks Killa. Actually, I am going to be in your neck of the woods early tomorrow morning, as I am flying out with the family to the West Coast to visit our grad school son in San Diego. Will be parking at an off site lot not far from you. However, taking the ICE van, not the EV. My wife was too afraid of "...What if we don't have enough electricity to get back to Bucks County?...". Maybe I'll take you up on the offer some time.

Lou
 
You guys have it made in your corner of the state. I was in Erdenheim yesterday. We stopped at Montgomeryville Nissan to check on the their chargers. They were both on and available to use. Talked to Darryl there for a bit and the way he talked they are totally on board with the EV thing.
Drove through the lot at Fred Beans in Doylestown and they also had two chargers that were on and available to use.
None of this is news to you who live in this area but if you read my post here
http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=11499&start=20" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
you'll understand why it was nice to see.
Passed a red Leaf around Erdenheim I believe.
 
Metalman:

I have yet to try to charge at Montgomeryville or Fred Beans. In fact, I leased my Mitsubishi I from Fred Beans Mitsubishi. They did say that FB Nissan would certainly allow me to charge, they would probably just want to know before you plug in. I can confirm that Conicelli Nissan in Conshohocken will allow you to charge. A few weeks ago they happily allowed me to plug in the I for an hour or so. And O'Neil Nissan in Warminster told me the same thing. I actually drove over there on a Sunday and the charger was available and working. I plugged in just for fun(I live 1 mile away from them). Too bad about the short mindedness of your Nissan dealer, that's just plain stupid.

Lou
 
<I posted this on the other PA Leaf board to see if they also had any other suggestions:>
Hi All, :evil:

Just wanted to mention my absolute distaste for the Alexander Dealership off of I-180 in the Muncy/Lycoming Mall area. The first time I had an appointment at the 6-month mark they didn't charge my car, I had to call them to turn on the electric outside - which then cost me many hours of life because I didn't have enough range to get home. Today, I arrived at the dealership and specifically told both the technician and the service person that it absolutely needs to be plugged in before the inspection and put back on right after because I need almost a full charge to get back home, and if they forget like last time I would be there from 9am to 7pm for a simple yearly maintenance check. After about 3 hours of waiting in the mall I decided to call them because no one was calling to tell me anything. I was then ambushed by the service lady yelling at me and telling me that "we shouldn't be doing what you told us to do - you can't unplug the car and then 10 minutes later plug it back in - it will destroy the battery and it will void your warranty if there are too many knocks against your efficiency score." I was like,....ummm......WHAT??!?!? I immediately marched back up to the dealership and spoke with both of these people again and told them that there is no way for me to get home at a normal hour if they do not charge it, I have no idea why I am being yelled at from your people by just telling you how to do your job (because it was obvious you couldn't do your job the previous time). So after this discussion I have sworn off this dealership where I bought my Leaf from last year.

I still love the car, works exactly as I expected it to and love everything about it, but this dealer honestly doesn't know the first thing about this vehicle and makes no attempt to get the correct information and be even slightly nice to their customers. I won't even go into their inability to just generally schedule customers......I guess I just cannot get over the fact that a business can sell you something that you expect long-term support for and a year later they look at you like 'what do you want me to do with this thing?!?!.' Any other people have positive experiences in the central Pennsylvania market? I will literally have this car towed to a better dealership for the inspection and future issues,...................let me know when you have a chance.
 
gatedad11 said:
Wonder if the black Leaf is TPS'? If you see a white and blue MiEV with the electric car graphics on it in the Warminster area, it's me. Honk and I'll wave!!!
There's another black LEAF in the Warminster area, so it may not have been me... I saw the other black LEAF on Bristol Road near Jacksonville Rd. heading northwest (I was going southeast). I also saw a white LEAF a week ago on Jacksonville Rd just as I was turning into Ivyland. We should meet up sometime. I'd like to see the MiEV...
 
TPS:

Just saw your black Leaf yesterday parked outside in Ivyland. I was driving from Bensalem to the Warminster Post Office and said to my wife "...Let's see if I can find that black Leaf in Ivyland..." Well, there she was, sitting all pretty. My wife really liked the color. Don't worry, not being a stalker, just that you had mendtioned you were only a block from the fire house so I passed by. if you had been outside I'd have stopped. FWIW, I had stopped in yesterday morning to O'Neill Nissan as they have 5 LEAF's on the lot. 3 used and 2 2013's. As much as I really enjoy the I-MiEV, the LEAF seems to be a better buy...bigger, better equipped, better range. The prices are definitley not bad, either. I think I saw a 2012 with under 2,000 miles for about $22,000. I leased my I and after 2 years the residual is around $24,000. Believe me, in 2 years I'll be looking to lease or possibly purchase a LEAF. And by then there will probably be some lightly used 2013's with the 6.6 on board charger and QC, for much less than the residual of the I-MiEV. Getting up to 80 miles on my I-MiEV, in the warmer weather we had and also that my drive to IKEA in Conshohocken is all back roads. I'd bet that the LEAF would get 90+ miles under the same conditions. I admit, I was jealous yesterday...but I still love my I.

Lou
Lou
 
We'll be moving ourselves and our LEAF into South Philly in the near future and was thinking about joining up with Plugshare. We've just been using trickle charge for now, but we're getting a level 2 EVSE for the longer commute. Anyone have any thoughts or experiences on how Plugshare has been working in Philadelphia?
 
Did everybody catch this showing up on plugshare and the Blink map?

http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=43&t=12660" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

DCQC's by the Delaware Memorial bridge.
I'm going to drive down and check the out tomorrow.

Edit:
Well, technically it's tomorrow.
I drove down.
It's the flying J truck stop, exit 2C off 295.
The chargers are on the extreme East side, past the gas pumps, past the Denny's, over where the RV's park.
Was Very cool.
I have no idea what it cost me, but I arrived with 37% pack charge, plugged in, went to the rest room, bought a soda, went out to see how it was coming, and it was done.

QC will only take you to 80% MAX, and my meter showed 78% just that fast.
It was 45F, so the battery temp didn't even go up that much.

EDIT (Again)- I got emailed a bill from BlinK.
Charge session lasted 622 Seconds (10.4 Minutes)
Total Charges... $0.00
Free for now apparently!


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47729C53-A428-4C38-BD52-832CBC5B4A3F-1951-000000F261ED4C14_zps18055b62.jpg
 
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