Charging Stations here in Missouri

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IraqiInvaderGnr

Well-known member
Joined
Mar 11, 2013
Messages
95
Location
Treynor, Iowa
What's with the placement of these charging stations? Look at map on chargepoint and you will see what I am talking about in Missouri. 63 Charging stations in Kansas City Metro, 28 in St. Louis, 9 in the rest of the state. I guess my question here is what is why are there no charging stations that make it possible to make it one Metro area in Missouri to another? I know I know the leaf is a commuter car but maybe it's just me but I'd like to go on some adventures sometime in the leaf even with a 2-4 hour wait to recharge every 50-100 miles. I live in Omaha Metro and occasionally I go to Des Moines with the leaf (Charge at Elk Horn along the way). My point here is we have significantly less stations up here but they are more spread out thus making it possible for a leaf to go long distance and stop in a lovely small town along the way. I'm starting to think it's time for some of us drivers to start setting up charging stations.
 
Part of the reason for the condensed volume is due to:

1. Walgreens - there are 10 stations at Walgreens scattered around town
2. Gov't funds - there are 10 stations in town that were put in before the Leaf was even available for sale here with DOE and energy company funds. Supposedly these become 'pay to charge' stations at the end of the year.
3. More gov't funds - there are 11 stations built with either county (Johnson) or state (Kansas) funds and the county promises their stations will remain free
4. Westar electric - Westar electric put EVSE's at all their offices across the state in part to recharge their fleet of Volt's but they have also expanded their fleet to include some all electric Leaf's and Focus's. There are 3-4 Westar devices in the metro
5. KCP&L (kc power+light) - another power company that put up some devices but usually in really awkward locations and one of them is even padlocked outside of business hours. It's a display but they do have 2 others that they use for their fleet operations.
6. University of Missouri (Kansas City) - UMKC has 6 EVSE's in multiple different parking locations on campus and 1 at the medical center downtown

I don't understand why the KC metro has more than St. Louis, we're smaller. You're right you can't go KC to STL. This is mostly due to a lack of power before and after Columbia, MO. You can't get to Columbia from either KC or STL w/o a charge and there is nowhere in between unless you have an EVSEupgrade and stop at the RV parks. You can make it from KC west to Salina and south to Wichita, and southwest to Hutchinson. All of this is on public 240 EVSE but it will take all day to get there. It took me 18 hours to do KC to Manhattan and back.


.......... HOLY SHEEP DIP!!!! There's a DCQC in St. Louis! Time to take a week off work to drive to it. (i'm not joking by very much i might actually do this)
 
I have to tell you, I agree. I was told all these charging stations would be running by 2014. I really have to think about if I will be purchasing another electric car. True, I can charge at home and I have saved gas (Petrol). But if electric cars are here to stay, we need to drive further than 80-90 mile at a time.
 
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