High’s Ice Cream was a memorable part of my childhood growing up in Virginia. My grandmother would drive us to the local store and we’d sit on the Naugahyde covered stools and order a special treat. My favorite flavor was Butter Brickle.
Now, it seems the old ice cream stores that I remember are gone but the High’s brand lives on as a convenience store chain complete with banks of gasoline pumps. A new High’s store just opened in Jessup, Maryland that portends yet another new direction for the 92 year old company.
Electron Filling Station
The Jessup store has DC fast chargers for filling electric cars with electrons. The two chargers are installed next to the automatic car wash across the parking lot from the row of gas pumps.
A BGE EVsmart public charging site is coming to Ellicott City, Maryland. The utility owned and operated DC Fast Charger and four Level 2 ports are installed, but not yet operational. They were spotted by EV driver @splat who alerted @PlugInSites on Twitter. They’re located in the parking lot of the Miller Branch of the Howard County Library and 50+ Center at 9421 Frederick Rd.
Utility Owned & Operated
The 50 kW charger is an Efacec QC45 model, the same unit as the BGE quick charger in Westminster that opened in December. I hope this charger will be reliable and fixed quickly if it fails. The only backup on site are the adjacent Level 2 ports. There is no redundant fast charger.
I’ve testified before the Maryland Public Service Commission on reliability issues and other challenges that EV drivers face when depending on public charging infrastructure. See: To the Maryland Public Service Commission from an EV Driver. Hopefully utility ownership can help solve these issues.
Signs Required for ICEing Enforcement
Signage at this location will be crucial. Howard County has an anti-ICEing law that EV advocates worked to get passed in 2014. In order to be enforceable, the ordinance requires that appropriate signs must be posted. Appropriate signs means they must be at least 12 inches by 18 inches and meet any applicable state or federal standards for parking control signs.
The BGE fast chargers have a fee of $0.34 per kWh as approved by regulators. Level 2 costs $0.18 per kWh. Those fees are subject to change with the approval of the PSC. EV drivers pay via a Greenlots account. Video.
More BGE Stations Planned
BGE plans to operate up to 500 public charging stations in their Maryland service area. About 20% of those may be fast chargers. The utility-operated charging stations must be located on property owned or controlled by state, county, or local governments per the terms of the PSC Order.
Washington, DC Area Tesla Superchargers “Coming Soon” as of January 1, 2020
Nine New Locations Added in Washington, DC Area
Tesla has updated the “Find Us” map on their website for the year 2020. All the “Coming Soon” locations with grey pins that had been labeled as “Target opening in 2019” now show “Target opening in 2020.” In addition, some new “Coming Soon” Supercharger locations have been added in the Washington, DC area. These include the locations listed below and indicated by green pins in the map above.
Reston, VA
Ashburn, VA
Chantilly, VA
Falls Church, VA
King George, VA
Millersville, MD
Towson, MD
Baltimore, MD – Canton
Easton, MD
Tesla is careful to note that exact timing and specific locations may vary. In fact, many of the locations designated by gray pins on the map have had their target year of opening moved forward more than once. For example, Halethorpe, MD, Washington, DC and Tysons, VA go back at least to 2017.
White paint marks an area where EV charging is to be installed.
Mt. Airy, Maryland, a town located between Baltimore and Frederick, installed a Level 2 charging station in May, 2015. We reported on the ribbon cutting when the Mayor, who drives an EV, and other officials welcomed electric vehicle drivers to charge for free while visiting the quaint and historic Mt Airy Main Street.
Town Attractive for EV Tourism
The initiative to attract EV tourism must be successful because the town is ready to break ground to add four more charging stations. These will be 240v Tesla charging units. Two will go next to the existing universal J1772 connectors in the Municipal Parking Lot and two will be installed in Watkins Park.
Tesla plans to build a Version 3 Supercharger at a new Wawa store in Vienna, Virginia. The location is a former Caldwell Banker building at 465 Maple Ave. (Rt. 123) at the intersection with Nutley St. Map link. Construction to convert the existing building began in September and management expects the store to open around April, 2020.
Plans show eight Supercharger stalls. Five charging spots are on the north side of the parking lot near the entrance from Nutley, Street. Three stalls are shown on the west side of the lot across from the main store entrance according to drawings submitted to Fairfax County and obtained by PlugInSites through a Virginia Freedom of Information Act request. One of the stalls will be in a pull-in spot. Two spots will be “dedicated” with “TESLA VEHICLE CHARGING ONLY” signs. The remaining stalls will allow “15 MINUTE GENERAL PARKING” according to the documents.
Electric Vehicle charging stations are being installed in the parking lot of Walmart in Columbia, Maryland. There’s a permit to install 12 charging stations and 3,000 Amp service at the Walmart at 6405 Dobbin Rd, Columbia, MD according to records from Howard County Department of Inspections, Licenses & Permits.
Trenching has begun and equipment is already on site ready to be installed. Crates are labeled “CHAdeMO” and “CCS.” This is likely going to be an Electrify America site. Walmart is a partner with Electrify America although Columbia Maryland is not mentioned on their map of planned locations.
Thanks @BraveRock for the tip. Stay tuned for updates.
A Tesla Supercharging Station is under construction in the parking garage for the Hotel at Arundel Preserve in Hanover, Maryland. There is equipment on site for eight urban-style Supercharger stalls on the third floor of the garage along the northwest side.
Garage Also Has Level 2 Charging
This garage has ChargePoint Level 2 charging stations on the ground floor that have been there since February, 2012. The original ChargePoint equipment was recently replaced.
Close to The Boring Company Dig Site
This Supercharger is less than a mile north of the Boring Company site that Governor Larry Hogan visited in October, 2017 where digging will reportedly occur for the DC to Baltimore Loop tunnel.
The Tesla “Find Us” web page shows that a Supercharger is targeted to open in Hanover, MD in 2019. Tesla also has a Supercharger under construction in Riverdale Park, MD that appears to be close to being finished. Stay tuned.
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Two concrete pads await EV charging equipment at Western Maryland Rail Trail Parking Lot.
CCS & CHAdeMO Chargers Part of Maryland AFIP Grant Award
EV drivers have waited years for DC Fast Chargers to be installed farther west along the Interstate in Western Maryland. It looks like a pair of chargers are about to arrive in the town of Hancock, about 25 miles west of Hagerstown.
The Maryland Energy Administration (MEA) awarded grants to install DC Fast Chargers in the state under the Alternative Fuel Infrastructure Program (AFIP) for fiscal year 2018. Included in that award is funding for a pair of Fast Chargers at the Western Maryland Rail Trail Parking Lot in Hancock, MD. On Sunday, January 6th, I was out that way and decided to have a look. I found two recently poured pads of concrete with conduit sticking up in the north-east corner of the lot. It looks like construction has begun. Read More …
Francis Scott Key Mall is Proposed Site of Frederick, MD Supercharger
Tesla plans to build a Frederick Maryland Supercharger at Francis Scott Key Mall according to documents submitted to Frederick County and obtained by PlugInSites through a Maryland Public Information Act request. The planned location is south east of the town of Frederick which is roughly in the vicinity of where I-270 and I-70 merge. Map link.
Plans show ten charging stalls located on the north edge of the parking lot along Spectrum Drive near JC Penny. There’s a Red Robin restaurant and a BJ’s Brewhouse nearby in the same parking lot. In addition to the Mall’s food options, there’s a Panera, Jersey Mike’s Subs, Baja Fresh and several other eateries across Spectrum Dr. Read More …
Early this morning, the Tesla Navigation map indicated that the National Harbor Supercharger was out of service. By 10 AM, the pin for National Harbor had disappeared completely and by this afternoon, National Harbor had been deleted from the Supercharger list on Tesla’s website.
There now stands a bank of 12 dark stalls where a day earlier had been active with Tesla cars coming and going. This Supercharger site went from Ribbon Cutting to decommissioning within 15 months.
In October, National Harbor announced that the Tesla parking lot would be closing. The lot was said to have been sold in order to build a hotel. We were assured that the Superchargers would be relocated somewhere else within National Harbor.
