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A new location just appeared by us (Old Orchard Mall, Skokie IL). Its a large high end mall, and right by the freeway, so a good location. Volta level 2 chargers are also available at the mall. I wish I could take half of the now dozen+ DC locations within 10 miles of my house, which make them almost useless to me generally, and spread them out to rural highway sections.
 
GCC:
Electrify America introduces Plug&Charge payment technology to its charging network
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https://www.greencarcongress.com/2020/11/20201117-ea.html


Electrify America’s ultra-fast charging network now offers Plug&Charge payment technology, which allows electric vehicle (EV) owners to begin a charge without reaching for their wallet, smartphone or bank card.

After a brief online registration, drivers can automatically pay for charging by simply plugging in their EV. The charger communicates with the vehicle to identify, authenticate, authorize and bill the customer’s registered account for the charging session. The entire process allows for a seamless charging experience for the customer. . . .

It enables simplified charging functionality for the most prevalent EV charging connector type, called the Combined Charging System (CCS).

This technology is now available on all Electrify America chargers across the US in advance of the anticipated arrival in the coming months of Plug&Charge-capable EVs, including the 2021 models of the Porsche Taycan, Ford Mustang Mach-E and Lucid Air. . . .
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Given my recent negative trip experience trying to activate EA chargers using my phone (0/4) and the credit card I'd pre-registered with them (1/4), this is badly needed. My only question is how this would work with a rental, such as the one I did on Turo. And will later MY Bolts etc. get it, or will we have to wait for the next generation? CHAdeMO users appear to be SOL regardless.
 
My guess is that since DCFC has bidirectional communication, it may be possible something in that communication is something that can be used as an identifier for the car (VIN??) that being registered to EA linked to an account could allow you to just plug in and charge. Tesla I understand has a system that operates in a similar manner though they are one company that makes the cars and chargers. I am all for things that make charging easier for people.
 
^^^Yes! Although we're still waiting for Quartzsite to complete a straight-through southern route (on I-10), Dateland is the last essential site to connect San Diego to JAX, so there are now two coast to coast routes.
 
I hope the Quartzsite one is near the Carl's Jr. While your car charges, you can walk over to the guy who sells rocks. Rocks that look just like the ones on the ground. It's quite the entertainment.
 
GetOffYourGas said:
I hope the Quartzsite one is near the Carl's Jr. While your car charges, you can walk over to the guy who sells rocks. Rocks that look just like the ones on the ground. It's quite the entertainment.
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Same exit but on the other (south) side of the freeway at the Love's Travel Stop. Looks like a fairly short walk if you've got some cash burning a hole in your pocket - but then you couldn't carry your rocks there :cry: ;)
 
IEVS:
Electrify America To Install Fast Chargers At Westfield Shopping Centers
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https://insideevs.com/news/455423/electrify-america-fast-chargers-westfield-shopping-centers/


New fast-charging stations will be launched at 19 locations in seven states. . . .

Most of the stations (12) fall on California, while the remaining seven will be in other six states:

California
at Westfield Valley Fair in Santa Clara;
Westfield Galleria at Roseville in Sacramento;

Westfield Century City, Westfield Culver City, Westfield Fashion Square, Westfield Santa Anita, Westfield Topanga, and Westfield Valencia Town Center in Los Angeles;

and Westfield Mission Valley, Westfield North County, Westfield Plaza Bonita and Westfield UTC in San Diego;

Connecticut at Westfield Trumbull in Trumbull;

Florida at Westfield Broward in Plantation;

Illinois at Westfield Old Orchard in Skokie;

Maryland at Westfield Montgomery in Bethesda and Westfield Wheaton in Wheaton;

New Jersey at Westfield Garden State Plaza in Paramus; and

New York at Westfield South Shore in Bay Shore.

The first one - in at Westfield Century City in Los Angeles - is already open for public use. . . .
Click to expand...
 
^^^
I saw that. EA already has some at https://www.westfield.com/oakridge: https://www.plugshare.com/location/247356. As with all other EA sites, I've never personally seen anyone use them.

FWIW, Westfield Valley Fair I'm pretty sure many many years ago one of the 44 kW https://web.archive.org/web/20140323161510/http://nissanqc.com/ but it went away years ago. They now have a combo of paid L2 ChargePoint (not cheap) and a few free Volta L2's.

I wonder if the Valley Fair EA chargers will get significant use. Pre-COVID, it was a pretty busy mall on weekends and crazy busy (very tough to find parking) from Black Friday until Christmas. It was a mall to TOTALLY AVOID on weekends between those two dates, unless you get dropped off by someone/public transit.

Right nearby, there used to also be a free CHAdeMO DC FC (also Nissan/Sumitomo) at the Walgreens nearby at https://www.google.com/maps/@37.3293738,-121.9508273,3a,75y,266.61h,92.31t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s8qPEq49O9zvGF_dKrVBA5Q!2e0!7i16384!8i8192. It's no longer on Plugshare so I'm not clear if it's still there/still exists. That was one of the free DC FCs I used when I had a Leaf w/CHAdeMO.

Side note: I was at an EA site the other night to see if it would give "free candy" as was reported a few weeks back by a Plugshare user. For whatever reason, at that time, the user claimed it defaulted to give free charging upon plug in that day, maybe as some sort of failsafe/fallback mechanism for connectivity problems. No such luck for me. However, two of three DC FCs at that site were showing "network error" on their credit card readers, which I think included the one that had the CHAdeMO handle. Good going.
 
GetOffYourGas said:
DaveinOlyWA said:
GetOffYourGas said:
As I wrote on the “Mission E” thread, I take this as good news. VWAG is taking EVs seriously. EA’s network is now critics to the success of one of their flagship products. Unlike a certain other network, EA is not a walled garden; it is available for all EVs to use. That they have financial motivation to maintain and improve it is a boon to all EV drivers.
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EA doesn't have to be a protocol "walled garden" with its pricing scheme. Don't be surprised to see VW giving favorable pricing scheme for its customers while we are left out in the cold.
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EA is giving "favorable pricing" for its customers. The Taycan comes with 3 years free! If that's not favorable pricing, nothing is. And no, I'm not surprised by it. Nor am I upset. Sure, I wish that they were more in line with EVGo's pricing. But the truth is, if you could actually use 150kW, the pricing is better than EVGo's (3X the power for much less than 3X the cost).
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I didn't even know about Taycan coming with the 3 years of free charging on EA until I stumbled across it when trying to configure a Taycan. I posted about it at https://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?p=594221#p594221. From their build page, it said:
Included 3 Years of 30 Minute DC Charging Sessions at Electrify America Stations

With the purchase of your Taycan, the following are included with Electrify America upon activation of the Porsche Charging Service:

Unlimited 30 minute sessions of DC fast charging
Unlimited 1 hour sessions of AC charging
...
Note: Both AC and DC charging require a one hour break between sessions. The Porsche Connect App is required to start charging sessions.
Click to expand...
Gotta love VW's clever scheme to let the dieselgate $ benefit themselves.
 
cwerdna said:
^^^
I saw that. EA already has some at https://www.westfield.com/oakridge: https://www.plugshare.com/location/247356. As with all other EA sites, I've never personally seen anyone use them.

FWIW, Westfield Valley Fair I'm pretty sure many many years ago one of the 44 kW https://web.archive.org/web/20140323161510/http://nissanqc.com/ but it went away years ago. They now have a combo of paid L2 ChargePoint (not cheap) and a few free Volta L2's.

I wonder if the Valley Fair EA chargers will get significant use. Pre-COVID, it was a pretty busy mall on weekends and crazy busy (very tough to find parking) from Black Friday until Christmas. It was a mall to TOTALLY AVOID on weekends between those two dates, unless you get dropped off by someone/public transit.

Right nearby, there used to also be a free CHAdeMO DC FC (also Nissan/Sumitomo) at the Walgreens nearby at https://www.google.com/maps/@37.3293738,-121.9508273,3a,75y,266.61h,92.31t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s8qPEq49O9zvGF_dKrVBA5Q!2e0!7i16384!8i8192. It's no longer on Plugshare so I'm not clear if it's still there/still exists. That was one of the free DC FCs I used when I had a Leaf w/CHAdeMO.

Side note: I was at an EA site the other night to see if it would give "free candy" as was reported a few weeks back by a Plugshare user. For whatever reason, at that time, the user claimed it defaulted to give free charging upon plug in that day, maybe as some sort of failsafe/fallback mechanism for connectivity problems. No such luck for me. However, two of three DC FCs at that site were showing "network error" on their credit card readers, which I think included the one that had the CHAdeMO handle. Good going.
Click to expand...

+1 EA West Olympia is literally a few hundred feet from Capital Mall a Westfield location. There is no street to cross. The entire area is literally one very large parking lot.
 
GRA said:
GetOffYourGas said:
I hope the Quartzsite one is near the Carl's Jr. While your car charges, you can walk over to the guy who sells rocks. Rocks that look just like the ones on the ground. It's quite the entertainment.
Click to expand...

Same exit but on the other (south) side of the freeway at the Love's Travel Stop. Looks like a fairly short walk if you've got some cash burning a hole in your pocket - but then you couldn't carry your rocks there :cry: ;)
Click to expand...
I guess that's OK. Love's is a pretty good spot for a QC station. They have fast food available too, plus a convenience mart. And you can get a gallon-sized "trucker's" coffee mug!
 
EA makes a video on how to prop-up the cable :) (due to the heavy HUBER+SUHNER CCS cables and handles that EA uses)
https://www.chevybolt.org/threads/ea-makes-a-video-on-how-to-prop-up-the-cable.36757/

https://youtu.be/VSuiG4YfRfA

The above hint is pretty well known by people who follow Bolt forums and FB groups but every now and then, someone pops in and doesn't know.

Gotta love the people who kept pushing for CCS when CHAdeMO had more time to mature. Oh well. (Side note: On some of the Bolt groups I'm on, there are a few very anti-CHAdeMO people including who seemed to have utter contempt for Leaf...)
 
cwerdna said:
EA makes a video on how to prop-up the cable :) (due to the heavy HUBER+SUHNER CCS cables and handles that EA uses)

The above hint is pretty well known by people who follow Bolt forums and FB groups but every now and then, someone pops in and doesn't know.

Gotta love the people who kept pushing for CCS when CHAdeMO had more time to mature. Oh well. (Side note: On some of the Bolt groups I'm on, there are a few very anti-CHAdeMO people including who seemed to have utter contempt for Leaf...)
Click to expand...
The first generation CHAdeMO handles were terrible. I didn't know that CCS handles were also so poorly designed -- or is it just the ones the EA uses? I've seen people connecting Bolts to CCS stations in Maine that didn't appear to have this issue (they weren't EA stations).
 
All of the public dc charging infra continues to get better.

Personally, EA are the only Chademos that have ever given me an issue. Evgo, Greenlots have all been pretty spotless for me personally.

Supposedly the EA Chademos hVe been getting better too..but haven't been to one in quite a while given all of the options we have now.
 
jlv said:
The first generation CHAdeMO handles were terrible. I didn't know that CCS handles were also so poorly designed -- or is it just the ones the EA uses? I've seen people connecting Bolts to CCS stations in Maine that didn't appear to have this issue (they weren't EA stations).
Click to expand...
Yeah, I'm pretty sure you're referring to the early Yazaki handles with a big black handle and unintuitive release (pressing the black button twice).

The heavy liquid cooled HUBER+SUHNER CCS seem to be on all the EA chargers I've seen (I'll admit to not having been to many of their sites). I've seen them on one BTC Power EVGo charger but no others.

For awhile, they had to shut down all the CCS handles that used them: https://www.autoblog.com/2019/01/26/electrify-america-shuts-down-ev-chargers/ but besides L2 and CHAdeMO, from https://web.archive.org/web/20190209154346/https://elam-cms-assets.s3.amazonaws.com/inline-files/Electrify%20America%20Announcement%20on%20Partial%20Network%20Shutdown%201.25.2019.pdf, a few CCS handles still worked, probably because they used some other cables.

I've not had the need to hold up the handle or wrestle with such heavy and stiff cables + handles at other (non-EA) CCS DC FCs. Some have been using REMA handles and some don't have a brand (say ChargePoint on them but might be REMA).
 
At the end of November there are 516 sites open/148 "Coming soon", compared to 491/171 at the end of October, a gain of 25 open sites.

Here's the list of road trip coverage expansion or gap filler "Coming soon" sites in the west I've been or will be monitoring, and consider most important for completion:

WA: Port Angeles (U.S. 101); Leavenworth (U.S. 2); Poulsbo (S.R. 3/305/307).

Oregon: Bend (U.S. 97); Warrenton &Newport (U.S. 101).

CA: *Garberville, Greenfield & Solvang (U.S. 101); *South Lake Tahoe (U.S. 50); Pacific Grove (off S.R. 1); Los Banos, Harris Ranch, Lost Hills & Oceanside (I-5); Buck Meadows (S.R. 120); Oakhurst (S.R.41); Fenner & *Needles (I-40).

AZ: Quartzsite (I-10); Williams & Kingman (I-40).

NV: Lovelock & W. Wendover (I-80).
 

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