EV charging from a driver's perspective.
UPDATE: Laurel Supercharger is open as of September 23, 2016.
According to the Property Manager at Towne Centre at Laurel, Tesla plans to open the Laurel Supercharger sometime this week. Lawrence Lashley, who works for Greenberg Gibbons Commercial, the development group that owns and operates the Towne Centre at Laurel, told Plug In Sites in a phone interview that he spoke with Tesla yesterday and that Tesla hopes to open the Supercharger Station by this Saturday, September 17.
Read More …
UPDATE: Funds are now depleted.
Maryland plug-in electric vehicle buyers may want to be aware of this. According to the Maryland MVA, the funds for the Plug-In Vehicle Excise Tax Credit for fiscal year 2017 are nearly depleted.
The following bulletin is dated August 29, 2016
Please be advised that the allotted funds for plug-in electric vehicles for fiscal year 2017 are nearly depleted. Once funds are gone, the program will end and we will not accept or process any excise tax credits for plug-in electric vehicles. Please alert your customers to this information prior to their purchase.
We will issue another Bulletin when the funds are gone.
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A report on Level 1 (120 volt) EV charging at work has just been published by the US Department of Energy. The 20 page report covers two scenarios for providing Level 1 EV charging at workplaces. Scenario A is making a 120 volt outlet available for employees to plug their own charging equipment into. Scenario B is the workplace providing Level 1 charging equipment with a J1772 connector for employee use.
Level 1 charging is capable of replenishing between 30 and 40 miles of range while connected for an 8 hour workday. Over 90% of employees in the US commute less than 35 miles.
The report suggests policies that employers can put in place to help ensure the success of a workplace charging program. Fee structures to recover the cost of Level 1 charging are also suggested.
The experiences of several Department of Energy Workplace Charging Challenge partners, including Coca-Cola in Atlanta and Melink in Milford, Ohio, are shared.
A PDF of the report can be downloaded at the Dept. of Energy website: L1 Charging At The Workplace.
Some EV drivers have noted that padlocks have appeared on three of the four Level 2 charging stations in the Arena Garage in Baltimore City preventing them from being used. I reached out to the City of Baltimore to ask why.
According to Chance Dunbar, off-street parking manager for the Parking Authority of Baltimore, the three charging stations have been removed from service because of low demand for EV charging in that garage. “We cannot keep these spaces reserved and empty, so until demand increases they will not be utilized for EV vehicles only.”
Frank Lee, an energy analyst in the city’s Department of Public Works said there have apparently been many ICE drivers demanding to use those parking spaces on the 2nd level of the garage. Mr. Lee indicated that there have been no EV drivers that have requested to use the charging stations. Read More …
I reached out to the park superintendent who directed me to a staff member who has been working to get the EV charging stations open. When I spoke with her this week, she explained the challenges of navigating the National Park Service rules and regulations related to providing public access to the equipment.
When the park originally requested funding for the project through a U.S. Department of Energy Clean Cities grant, they had planned to let the public use them free of charge. The staff researched other National Parks that had charging stations and found that only a few examples existed at the time. Catoctin chose to base their plan on the model of Zion National Park. Zion used ClipperCreek Model CS40 charging stations with Liberty Access Technology keypads that use codes that are not dependent on WIFI or a network connection. The keypads were to be there only as a contingency in case the park wanted to control access in the future. Read More …
On the Clean Cities website, it says that Catoctin Mountain Park will install electric vehicle charging stations for park and public use. Information found online suggests that a request for bids for construction of five EV charging stations at three locations at the park was solicited in July, 2015 with a project magnitude of $60,000 – $80,000.
The Catoctin Mountain Park Facebook page announced the charging stations on December 18, 2015 with a photo of the Park’s new C-max Energi car plugged in. The caption said, “Although the charging stations aren’t quite ready for visitor use, they will be soon.”
When we arrived at the Visitor Center parking lot Sunday afternoon, the sign on the two ClipperCreek stations was covered with a dark plastic bag. I went inside and asked the Rangers about the status of the stations and one looked at me and said that the charging stations have not been turned on and he doesn’t know when they will be, “if ever.”
If ever? I asked what he meant by that. He said everyone needs to get on the “same page” before it will be turned on. When I pressed for details, it seemed that the charging stations are caught in some sort of intractable bureaucratic limbo. Then I started asking what needs to happen and what I can do to help get the process moving forward so that the public, who evidently have already paid for the charging stations, can actually use them as intended.
The other Ranger asked me to wait while she went in the back to talk to someone. She returned with a paper with the name and contact info for the park superintendent. She said the delay has something to do with getting an intermediary for the payment mechanism. There is a Liberty access control kedpad on each of the stations and the stations do have power but no apparent way to pay or authorize use to the public.
I have contacted the park superintendent and will update this post when I know more.
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Tesla, in coordination with The Maryland Department of Transportation (MDOT), the Maryland Transportation Authority (MDTA), and Areas USA, will be installing a Supercharger station at the Maryland House Travel Plaza on I-95 near Aberdeen. This location will be about 34 travel miles south of the Newark, DE Supercharger and 50 miles north of the Laurel, MD Supercharger.
“Tesla will be coming to the Maryland House with 8 charging stations,” said Carlos de Jesus, Director of Operations for Areas USA, operator of the Travel Plaza. “We expect them up and running by mid-October.” Tesla Superchargers are free for Tesla electric vehicle owners to use. The Superchargers can furnish up to 170 miles of range in as little as 30 minutes. Tesla will be paying the electric utility bill for the energy consumed by the Superchargers.
Superchargers are also being considered for the Chesapeake House Travel Plaza, 15 miles north of Maryland House. Those plans, including the proposed number of stalls, will be based on data gathered from the first year of usage at the Maryland House.
Two separate areas have been allocated for EV charging at each of the two Travel Plazas. One is for the Tesla Superchargers and the second area will be for charging stations that can be used by other electric vehicles, presumably with CHAdeMO and SAE Combo connectors. The operator intends to partner with a charging company other than Tesla to install those stations in the near future.
Maryland House is one of the busiest travel plazas in the country, serving nearly 3 million visitors a year. The operator plans to advertise the EV charging stations to visitors on video monitors inside the building.
Other EV drivers also contacted them about the ICEing problem. The response we got was that they had designed blue signs that said, “Electric Vehicle Charging Station.” They added that they were not willing to post signs that restricted parking to electric vehicles only, in part, because there were no enforceable regulations similar to those for handicapped spaces. Read More …
A Policy Statement issued June 17, 2013 by the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Highway Administration addresses regulatory sign standards for electric vehicle charging and parking facilities. [Link to webpage]
This Policy is intended to provide guidance based on the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices for Streets and Highways (MUTCD) for uniformity among regulatory signs used for on-street electric vehicle charging and parking sites.
This Policy can be shared with local officials and property owners that wish to have signs that conform to MUTCD specifications that are required in some jurisdictions in order for the police to enforce anti-ICEing laws. (legislation reference)
Source: Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) Policy Memorandum.
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The Massachusetts Department of Transportation plans to install electric vehicle fast charging stations at six service plazas along the Massachusetts Turnpike by the end of the year.
The 50kW DC Fast Chargers will support both CHAdeMO and SAE Combo connectors and are being installed by contractor, Voltrek, LLC of Andover, MA. The initial locations are planned for Framingham westbound, Natick eastbound, Charlton eastbound and westbound, Blandford westbound and Lee eastbound.
The first two chargers are expected to be operational by early fall and the other stations are expected to be finished by the end of 2016. MassDOT also plans to install six more DC Fast Chargers along I-90 in the future.
Donald Pettey, MassDOT highway project manager for strategic initiatives, said that a goal of the EV charging stations is to help increase adoption of electric vehicles in the state. Currently, there are nearly 7,000 plug-in electric vehicles registered in Massachusetts. EV adoption is also promoted through the Massachusetts Offers Rebates for Electric Vehicles (MOR-EV) program which has dedicated $3.7 million to increase the number of plug-in vehicles on the road.
Mr. Pettey says that each charging site will be built to accommodate future expansion. At least 200 kW of electrical service is planned at the locations which can support multiple 50 kW chargers or any high-output charging stations that may be available in the future.
The cost to use the charging stations has not been determined but they will be free for the first six months.