EV charging from a driver's perspective.
A Tesla Supercharger with six stalls opened this week in the town of Lexington, Virginia at 880 N. Lee Highway (map).
The Superchargers are hosted on property owned by Dominion Lodging, Inc. They operate a Best Western and a Holiday Inn Express here.
The Lexington, VA Supercharger, near the interchange of I-64 and I-81 in the Shenandoah Valley, is about 109 miles south of the Strasburg, VA Supercharger and about 120 miles north of a Supercharger currently under construction in Wytheville, VA.
A new SAE Combo Fast Charger has shown up at a Royal Farms store at Ridley Park, Exit 8 off of Interstate 95 near Philadelphia.
It appears that this station may be part of the East Coast Express Charging Corridor that was announced in January at the 2015 Washington Auto Show by BMW, Volkswagen and ChargePoint. The verbiage in the description on the ChargePoint App suggests that it indeed is. It says, “SAE Combo connector for BMW i3 and VW e-Golf” but does not mention the Chevrolet Spark EV which also uses the SAE Combo connector. I imagine that is because the East Coast Express is being funded by BMW of North America and Volkswagen of America.
ROYAL FARMS STORE #202
105 Stewart Ave, Ridley Park, PA 19078
Although this charging station is at a Royal Farms store, it is not part of the EVIP program in Maryland. The stations at the Royal Farms in Maryland are part of a state grant and have both CHAdeMO and SAE Combo connectors.
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Many of us are used to finding a coffee shop, restaurant or movie theater nearby when we plug into a Level 2 public charging station for a boost. This “plug in site” in Potomac Overlook Regional Park has a nature center, hiking trails, gardens, picnic tables and a sustainable energy exhibit to occupy your time while charging.
The charging station is accessed by driving down a gravel road normally closed to the public. It’s beside a brown shed on the right about 100 feet before the Nature Center.
The park is open daily, dawn to dusk. The park manager asks that you call first so that they can manage vehicular use on the Nature Center access road. During events or heavy visitation, the charging station may not be available.
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The DelMarVa peninsula has been an EV charging desert for years. Today, two DC fast chargers came online that will enable drivers of CHAdeMO and SAE Combo equipped electric vehicles to drive from the Washington, DC and Baltimore area to Ocean City.
The two fast chargers are part of the Maryland Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Program (EVIP) grant. The locations are at Royal Farms stores at 2703 Ocean Gateway, Cambridge, MD and 27992 Ocean Gateway, Salisbury, MD.
For the moment, the stations are free but there will eventually be a $0.39 per kWh fee assessed.
Who will be the first to reach the Ocean City boardwalk in a Nissan LEAF, Chevy Spark EV, VW eGolf or BMW i3?
Just in time for Thanksgiving travel, another SAE Combo/CHAdeMO Fast Charger has come online in Maryland. This one is at the Royal Farms store in Hunt Valley, north of Baltimore near Interstate 83. (map link)
Are you planning on using fast chargers for Thanksgiving travel this week?
Let us know via Twitter. @PlugInSites.
The DC Fast Charger at the Royal Farms store at 1818 Baltimore Blvd, Finksburg, MD, southeast of Westminster, is now online.
This dual port, SAE Combo and CHAdeMO station is part of the Maryland EVIP grant program which includes 15 Royal Farms locations in the state of Maryland.
The station shows up on the ChargePoint map and is listed as free. The free period is probably temporary and then it will cost $0.39 per kWh with $2.00 minimum.
Follow @PlugInSites for updates.
The Parking Authority of Baltimore City garage in the Royal Farms Arena just got three more charging stations installed.
These are part of the partnership between Baltimore-based company, EVI and the City of Baltimore to expand EV charging at some city-owned garages and street-side locations. All stations in the garage are free to use.
Royal Farms Arena Garage has had one ChargePoint station with a Level 1 and a Level 2 port for a few years. There are now three additional Level 2 stations supplied by EVI on the second floor adjacent to the original station. The address of the Arena Garage is 99 S. Howard Street. The garage entrance is on a one way street just north of Lombard Street.
We recently drove down to North Mrytle Beach, SC to attend a wedding and stayed at the North Beach Plantation. We were pleased to find that we could charge our Model S right outside of the reception hall at the Tesla HPWC shown in the photo above.
The hotel that we stayed at also had an HPWC and a ClipperCreek universal J-1772 charging station in the garage. The resort uses electric shuttle buses that might be parked at the charging stations, but we were quickly able to find a valet who cheerfully moved the shuttle bus out of a spot for us to charge.
The two destination charging locations on the North Beach Plantation Resort grounds are not yet on the Tesla Destination Charging map. Tesla has been very busy getting partners into the destination charging program that they must have a hard time keeping the map up to date with new installations.
If you know of a hotel, resort or other location that would be a good candidate for a destination charging station, have them contact the Tesla Destination Charging team.
Nice dedication ceremony Monday night for the Front Royal, VA CHAdeMO/SAE Combo (CCS) Fast Charger.
Front Royal Town Council (including Mayor Timothy Darr), Virginia Clean Cities Executive Director Alleyn Harned & Deputy Director Matt Wade, representatives of Tri-State Nissan (with a black 2015 Leaf S), and a reporter from WHAG-TV in Hagerstown, MD were among those in attendance. A new Tesla Model S owner from Northern VA also made the trip out and had his car on display.
Council Members in attendance seemed genuinely excited about the prospect of drawing EV owners off Interstates 81 & 66 / Routes 340 & 522 and into town to enjoy great dining and shopping opportunities which are all an easy walk from the new charging station.
The station operates on the Greenlots network.
Thanks to Rick Rohn for contributing this report to Plug In Sites. Rick drives a Nissan Leaf and Chevy Volt. He is a strong advocate for EV charging infrastructure in and around the eastern panhandle of West Virginia where he lives.
Garages in Bethesda, Silver Spring and Wheaton
The Division of Parking Management of the Montgomery County Dept. of Transportation has installed electric vehicle charging stations in five county-owned garages in Bethesda, Silver Spring and Wheaton.
This is an expansion of a program to integrate EV charging stations into suitable county-owned parking facilities. Charging stations that can serve six cars at once were installed in Bethesda’s Capital Crescent Garage (Garage 31) earlier this year. The county’s Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Overview Plan calls for two more dual-port stations in Garage 31 if demand warrants.
Phase 1
The new locations that are part of Phase 1 are:
Phase 2
Phase 2 of the plan, not yet implemented, calls for charging stations at Garage 36 in Bethesda and Garage 5, Garage 60 and Garage 61 in Silver Spring and Lot 13 in Wheaton.
The county currently charges a fee of $0.13/kWh for using the charging stations which is roughly the fair market value of the electricity. Users must also pay the hourly parking fee during posted hours. There is a four hour limit for parking at the charging stations. Four hours was determined to be sufficient time for most daily commuters to recharge.
Signage
All of the EV charging spaces are designated with regulatory signage to permit enforcement under § 31-26B of the Montgomery County Code.
Since universal EV sign standards have yet to be established, the Division of Parking Management has developed their own regulatory signage. (shown at right)
ADA Accessibility
In order to remove barriers to access under the ADA, each electric vehicle parking space is 11 feet wide with a 5 foot aisle. Priority is given to a location that is on the most level surface closest to an accessible entrance. Click the links below to see maps.
Maps
Maps are available to the three Parking Lot Districts that show the county garages that have electric vehicle charging infrastructure. Click the links below to see maps.
