This 24kW station is part of the East Coast Express Charging Corridor that will stretch from DC to Boston and is being built by BMW, Volkswagen and ChargePoint. The ChargePoint App says, “SAE Combo connector for BMW i3 and VW e-Golf” but the Chevrolet Spark EV, which also uses the SAE Combo connector, can presumably use this. The fee is $3.00/hour plus $0.20/kWh.
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.
Permit pending for 8 charging stalls at Towne Centre at Laurel
According to the City of Laurel, an application has been submitted to build a Tesla Supercharger at 14700 Baltimore Avenue which is the Towne Centre at Laurel. Plans are for eight stalls on the lower level of the parking garage next to the Regal Movie Theater. A permit will be issued by the city once a contractor is selected.
This site may replace the temporary Supercharger that has been in Bethesda since January, 2014.
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.
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.
Click map for location details. green=installed, yellow=construction, dark blue=permitted, light blue=bidding.
The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection has been working with the PA Turnpike on installing DC Fast Chargers along the length of the Turnpike. Car Charging Group, Inc. is a partner in the Turnpike project and they have reported that construction is underway at the Oakmont Plaza near Pittsburgh.
New Stanton, North and South Somerset and North and South Midway have permits and are scheduled for construction. All six western travel plazas are expected to have Fast Chargers installed and operational by the end of February 2016. The central plazas (Sideling Hill, Blue Mountain, Cumberland Valley, Highspire and Lawn) are now in the bidding process.
I confess. I did a bad thing. I didn’t mean any harm. But I caused an inconvenience for another EV driver and I feel terrible about it.
In my defense, I was new at the game of using public charging stations back in the spring of 2012. We all were.
We had taken our brand new THINK City EV to be in the Olney Days Parade. On the way home, we stopped to have lunch. I plugged in at a Walgreens store which had one of the few charging stations that existed at the time. We went to eat and returned about an hour later.
As we approached, we saw something incredible. There was another EV parked next to our car at the charging station. Not just any EV, but another black THINK City. Twins! There are only about 400 THINKs in the entire United States. What are the chances?
The owner of the other THINK was standing there. I introduced myself. His name was Tony. He had just gotten his car the previous day. He had found himself suddenly low on battery that afternoon and coaxed his new electric machine to the nearest charging station only to find it occupied by my car. He had been waiting 45 minutes for us to return. He was cool about it, but I was kind of embarrassed.
Tony had no way of knowing who the car belonged to or how to contact us. That’s the moment when I decided to use a dash card whenever I leave my vehicle at a public charging station. A dash card, sometimes called a courtesy card or EV charging protocol card, is placed on the dashboard to communicate with other EV drivers who may show up and need to charge. It may be as simple as text that reads, “OK to Unplug” or a mechanism to show what time you plan to finish charging.
The dash card helped this Nissan LEAF driver who needed to charge.
In my opinion, the most valuable information to leave is simply a phone number that you can be reached at. A number to call or text, along with an indication that you are willing to share, is all that is needed to set up a negotiation between two drivers. There can be factors at play that require a dialogue. For example, there may not be any open parking spots adjacent to the charging station and the two cars may have to switch parking.
There are files on the Internet that you can print out to display on your plug-in car’s dashboard. It’s a matter of personal preference which style you want to use. I’ve decided to create one that has a simple design, a bold typeface and a space to put a contact number.
Anyone is free to download the file and print it out for themselves. I’ve also linked to several other dash card files on the Dash Card page.
This is one of my favorite charging stations to visit. It’s hidden down a gravel road in a peaceful wooded park near the Potomac River in northern Arlington, Virginia.
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.
Potomac Overlook Park EV charging station – click map for details
First EV Charging Station in Arlington
This SemaConnect ChargePro is the very first electric vehicle charging station installed in Arlington. It was unveiled at the park’s 26th Annual Potomac Overlook Open House & Heritage Festival on May 1, 2011.
*This Station is Permanently CLOSED*
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.
*This Station is Permanently CLOSED as of 11/28/16*
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Story of the Anti-ICEing law in Montgomery County, MD
Our recent post showing the Jeep that got slapped with a $60.00 fine for ICEing has kinda gone viral. It’s generated thousands of views and has been shared and discussed in EV related groups on Facebook and elsewhere. It’s even prompted a thread on a VW enthusiast forum asking how common these laws are. Maybe these photos will serve as a warning to gas car drivers to think twice before parking in an EV charging spot.
The truth is, most jurisdictions still don’t have laws against blocking a charging station. It took years to get the first such law in Maryland and Montgomery County is still the only jurisdiction in the state to give tickets for ICEing on private parking lots where most of the charging stations are located.
Advocating for a similar law in your area
It’s not easy to get these laws made. I wrote an article for the Electric Auto Association’s Current EVents detailing some of the history and challenges of the first anti-ICEing law in Maryland and tips on advocating for similar legislation in your jurisdiction. Click here to read.
The following portion of the Surface Transportation Reauthorization and Reform Act of 2015 (HR22) relates to electric vehicle charging infrastructure. It includes language introduced by Rep. Thomas Massie to authorize the operation of EV charging stations in parking areas used by federal employees. This was originally introduced as the EV-COMUTE Act of 2014 by Rep. Zoe Lofgren before being amended to the Surface Transportation bill, now signed into law by the President.
SEC. 1413. National electric vehicle charging and hydrogen, propane, and natural gas fueling corridors.
(c) Operation of battery recharging stations in parking areas used by Federal employees.—
(1) AUTHORIZATION.—
(A) IN GENERAL.—The Administrator of General Services may install, construct, operate, and maintain on a reimbursable basis a battery recharging station (or allow, on a reimbursable basis, the use of a 120-volt electrical receptacle for battery recharging) in a parking area that is in the custody, control, or administrative jurisdiction of the General Services Administration for the use of only privately owned vehicles of employees of the General Services Administration, tenant Federal agencies, and others who are authorized to park in such area to the extent such use by only privately owned vehicles does not interfere with or impede access to the equipment by Federal fleet vehicles. Read More …
Warning to gasoline car drivers, if you block an EV charging station in Gaithersburg in Montgomery County, Maryland with a vehicle that doesn’t plug-in, you risk getting a $60 parking fine. The police in Gaithersburg gave a ticket to a Jeep that parked in a clearly marked electric vehicle charging spot at the Cadence at Crown parking garage.
The parking violation notice referred to City Code Sec. 14-7G (In Violation of Official Sign) with a handwritten note, “Jeep parked in spot marked ‘Electric Vehicles Only.'” The fine was listed as $60 on the ticket.
Montgomery County passed a law that went into effect on June 11, 2014 that makes it illegal to park a non plug-in vehicle at a charging station marked with an official sign. That law is in Sec. 31-26B of Montgomery Co. Code.
To report parking violations in Montgomery County, call the police non-emergency line at 301-279-8000.
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