Click map for location details of Maryland EVIP CHAdeMO/SAE Combo Fast Chargers.
This is the December, 2015 April, 2016 PlugInSites unofficial map of open, under construction and planned locations of the Maryland Energy Administration’s Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Program (EVIP) Fast Charger stations. Grants were awarded for 21 sites although not all of those locations are shown on this map and some of the planned locations shown are subject to change.
The EVIP grant program, announced on April 24, 2014, provides up to $1,000,000 in matching funds for a public/private partnership to install a DC Fast Charging network throughout the State of Maryland. The DC Fast Charging sites will have both CHAdeMO and SAE Combo connectors.
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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?
Officials in Rockbridge County have issued a permit for the construction of a Tesla Supercharger station near the town of Lexington, Virginia at 880 N. Lee Highway (map).
There is an Applebee’s restaurant, Best Western and a Holiday Inn Express near this address.
The new Supercharger will be close to the interchange of I-64 and I-81 and will be accessible to travelers on both highways. The Lexington, VA Supercharger will be about 109 miles south of the Tesla Supercharger in Strasburg, VA that opened on September 2, 2015.
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.
November 11, 2015, my wife Vera and I took our 100% electric car across the state of Maryland as fast as we possibly could without breaking the speed limit. The goal was to see if we could do the drive in a time reasonably close to doing it in a gasoline car. Six hours is the normal benchmark.
I got the inspiration from watching “The Electric Road Trip,” a PBS documentary made by Jonathan Slade and Novia Campbell. The husband and wife team filmed their 2012 trek across the state in a Nissan LEAF. Their goal was to demonstrate the viability of an EV for everyday use. If they could drive an all-electric car from Oakland in western Maryland all the way to Ocean City, then viewers may realize that an electric car could easily serve as their daily commuter.
Across Maryland in Six Hours or Six Days?
In the film, the couple stop at a store near the beginning of their trip and ask the shopkeeper if she has ever driven from there to Ocean City. The woman said, “Yes I have, it’s normally a six-hour drive from one end of the state to the other.” Novia laughed and said, ”It’s probably going to take us six days.” Indeed, the couple took five days to reach the shore.
Three years ago, when they took their trip, Maryland was an EV charging infrastructure desert on the Eastern Shore and a wilderness west of Frederick. There were very few EV charging stations when venturing beyond the suburbs of Baltimore and DC. Often, the couple had to resort to “trickle charging” on a 120 volt outlet which slowed their pace and gave them time to explore and meet interesting people in the small towns where they stopped to charge.
Jonathan Slade and Novia Campbell holding the Emmy Award they won for “The Electric Road Trip.”
Vera and I have taken similar slow charging trips in our THINK City EV and it really does allow plenty of time to smell the roses. That slow pace makes for a nice vacation road trip. But what if a family wants to spend their vacation lounging at the beach, not driving to it. Has the charging infrastructure and EV technology advanced enough to drive an EV from Deep Creek Lake to the OC Boardwalk in a reasonable amount of time?
Bigger Batteries and Supercharging
There have been several advancements since the summer of 2012 to help bring forth a quicker electric journey across the state. The first is that Tesla started delivering their Model S with a range of over 250 miles on a charge. In January, 2014, Tesla opened a Supercharger station in Hagerstown, MD that can recharge the batteries on a Model S in under an hour. Another Supercharger opened in Salisbury last November. This summer, several Tesla “destination charging” stations popped up in western Maryland including at the Lake Pointe Inn in McHenry.
When the Holiday Inn Oceanfront in Ocean City switched on the power to their charging stations on November 3rd, the stage was finally set for a fast electric crossing. I figured the trip could be done with a Tesla 70D by charging up overnight at the Lake Pointe Inn, driving to Hagerstown for a quick boost and if the wind and temperature were right, go non-stop to Ocean City, bypassing the Salisbury Supercharger. I was ready and so was Vera.
Ready to Roll
The night of November 10th, Vera and I drove from our home in the DC-Baltimore area out to the Lake Pointe Inn. It rained most of the way out but the forecast was for partly sunny with a high in the upper 60’s for the following day. Importantly, a steady breeze was forecast to blow from the W and NW for the entire day – a perfect tailwind. It would also be a federal holiday, Veterans Day, and I expected lighter than normal traffic.
We awoke to a fully charged car and headed to the historic Oakland train station, 14 miles away. This is where Jonathan and Novia began their trip. On our way into town, we were astonished to see a white Nissan LEAF coming the other way. I flashed the lights and waved. Electric cars are showing up everywhere, even in the “EV wilderness” of Garrett County, MD.
In Oakland I snapped a few photos and Vera took the driver’s seat. At exactly 8:00 AM we rolled away from the train station heading directly to the Hagerstown Supercharger 115 miles away. I had plotted the route using EV Trip Planner and I carefully monitored the projected vs actual energy usage from my seat on the passenger side. Our car has the Tesla “Autopilot” feature which uses a combination of cameras, radar, ultrasonic sensors and data to adjust speed in response to traffic and automatically steer and change lanes on the highway.
Tesla Autopilot – Keeping Us Honest
We used the Traffic Aware Cruise Control (TACC) practically the entire way to make sure that we stayed at or below the posted speed limit. The car’s forward facing camera is able to read and recognize the speed limit signs and by pulling and holding the cruise control stalk for a few seconds, the TACC will set its cruising speed to match the speed limit and automatically slow down when it senses a slower vehicle ahead and accelerate when movement resumes.
We used a publicly displayed Glympse map so that people who were interested could track our progress. Glympse also displayed the current speed so others could verify that we were sticking to the speed limit. One viewer commented that we were going 70 MPH on I-68 and must be speeding. I reminded them that on October 1st, Maryland increased the posted speed limit on the Interstate in western Maryland from 65 to 70 MPH. So all was good.
The first 85 miles was on two lane highways. Once we merged onto Interstate 68, Vera engaged the Autosteer function to keep the car in the current lane. The Autopilot features are still in beta and Tesla requires drivers to remain engaged and aware when Autosteer is enabled and to keep hands on the wheel at all times.
Supercharger Pit Stop
Traffic was light on I-68 so the Autopilot kept us moving along steadily at 70 MPH except when the posted speed was lower. We reached the Hagerstown exit at 9:59 AM. We arrived to find two of our EV friends had decided to come out to greet us. They had been tracking us on the Glympse map and figured out when we would arrive to charge.
Rick and Dave with Vera at our Hagerstown Supercharger stop.
Rick Rohn drove his LEAF from Martinsburg, WV and Dave Glotfelty, who also has a LEAF, drove from Pennsylvania bearing donuts and drinks. It was great to see them! Our visit was brief. After 42 minutes of charging, we had enough to make it to Ocean City, even if the tailwind quit. At 10:51, we were back on the highway with Autopilot engaged and Vera still holding the wheel.
Bladder Management
After leaving Hagerstown with 215 miles of rated range and the wind literally at our back, I felt confident that we would make it to Salisbury with enough charge to keep going straight to Ocean City without stopping. Since we were trying to compare our total time from Oakland to OC vs a non-stop trip in a gas vehicle, we wanted to keep stops to a minimum. That included bathroom breaks. We were mindful of fluid consumption and it worked out well for the four-hour final leg.
Taking manual control of steering while passing through the Chesapeake Bay Bridge toll booth.
Traffic was relatively light as we passed south of Baltimore, onto Route 50 and over the Chesapeake Bay Bridge to the Eastern Shore. We maintained the legal speed even when the limit dropped to 45 or 35 MPH. We got passed a lot.
At 2:41 PM, we crossed the entrance to the Hugh T. Cropper Inlet Parking Lot in Ocean City, exactly 6 hours and 41 minutes after leaving the train station in Oakland. If we were driving a gas car and didn’t have to stop to refuel, to use the restroom or to eat, we would have theoretically arrived 52 minutes earlier. In reality, it’s unlikely that people would drive a distance of 329 miles without stopping. Just a fast food stop and restroom break could easily add up to the same amount of time as our 42 minute Supercharging stop. And of course we eat and use the restroom while the car is charging.
Picking up some fresh Fisher’s Popcorn after arriving at the OC Boardwalk.
Despite the title of this article, I don’t really presume that there’s a “record” for crossing Maryland. However, I do hope to draw attention to the need for more CHAdeMO and SAE Combo fast charging stations, especially in the western part of the state. Jonathan and Novia hoped that their documentary “would spark conversations about how transportation infrastructure needs to evolve in the 21st century.” I hope that our demonstration contributes to that conversation.
The former Maryland Attorney General promised a statewide fast charger network when he announced the $1,000,000 EVIP grant program. Three chargers funded by the program are under construction on the Eastern Shore. Unfortunately, there are no plans for building fast chargers west of Hagerstown in the EVIP awards. That Nissan LEAF that we spotted out in western Maryland should be able to drive to Ocean City by using a well-spaced network of fast chargers. I hope the infrastructure to support that trip won’t take another three years to develop.
Start: 8:00 AM Oakland, MD Train Station Finish: 2:41 PM Ocean City, MD Hugh T. Cropper Inlet Parking Lot entrance gate Elapsed Time: 6 Hours, 41 minutes Total Charging Time: 42 minutes Rated Miles Added by Charging: 118 Time Taken to Recharge – From Exit to Reentering Hwy: 52 minutes Total Miles: 329 Total Energy Used: 80 kWh Avg. Energy: 243 Wh/mi
At a meeting earlier this week, the Ocean City, Maryland Mayor and City Council agreed to install electric vehicle charging stations in at least three locations. The Holiday Inn Oceanfront has already installed Tesla destination charging stations and those are up and running now.
In August, the Mayor and Council had agreed to accept a grant from Tesla Motors to install three charging stations in the Convention Center south parking lot. City Engineer Terry McGean reported that the originally proposed location in the southeast corner of the lot did not have electric service of the proper voltage for the charging stations and there was no close by transformer for DelMarVa Power to tap into. McGean recommended changing the location to the north side of the same parking lot near a utility pole with transformers to install the two Tesla HPWCs and one universal J-1772 station.
First EV charging stations in Ocean City now open at Holiday Inn Oceanfront
The City has also been approached by Electric Vehicle Institute (EVI), a Baltimore company that markets charging stations, with a grant that would include a generous number of charging stations including installation at no cost to the City. Ocean City would provide the parking spaces and electricity in the arrangement. After some discussion, the Mayor and Council voted to agree to the new location of the Tesla supplied stations at the Convention Center and to accept the EVI grant proposal for two stations each at Northside Park and the parking lot at 100th Street with another yet to be determined location in the south part of town.
City Engineer McGean was asked by the Council to explore options for the fourth EV charging location in the downtown area close to the boardwalk. Councilman Tony DeLuca said, “The more locations that we can have, the better. Having people come here with electric cars of all types is really the future and I just think it is the right direction.”
The City will provide the electricity for free for one year and then reevaluate. Councilman Wayne Hartman noted the @TeslaRoadTrip event that came to Ocean City in April and said that most of them stayed in Salisbury because of the chargers there. “If we have those 80 or 100 cars here, the town is going to actually make money by having those chargers here.”
The City Engineer has said that their goal is to have the Tesla charging stations installed by next spring.
Driving straight across Maryland using Tesla Autopilot and newly installed destination charging stations in western Maryland and Ocean City. More info.
UPDATE: Drive completed on November 11, 2015
All-Electric from Oakland, Maryland to Ocean City, Maryland in 6 hours, 41 minutes
In July 2012, Jonathan Slade and Novia Campbell drove their Nissan Leaf from the town of Oakland in western Maryland to Ocean City to become the first people to drive a fully electric vehicle across Maryland. They used what little existing EV charging infrastructure existed at the time supplemented by “trickle charging” on 120v outlets at Bed and Breakfasts and towns along the way. The leisurely trip took them nearly a week.
When I watched their Emmy-winning PBS documentary, The Electric Road Trip Across Maryland, I noted that one of the people interviewed at the start said that it normally takes about six hours to drive from Oakland to Ocean City.
It’s been three years since Jonathan and Novia’s adventure and the electric vehicle charging infrastructure is still concentrated in the center of the state. There are still not many charging options in Maryland west of Hagerstown. And the Eastern Shore is still largely an EV charging desert.
Earlier this year, several properties in western Maryland took advantage of the Tesla Destination Charging program and installed Level 2 charging stations for their guests. One of these is Lake Pointe Inn in far western Maryland close to Oakland. Last week, the Holiday Inn Oceanfront switched on the first real charging stations at the Maryland beaches. Now it’s time to take another electric road trip across Maryland. This time, closer to six hours than six days.
At 8:00 AM tomorrow, @verastamps and I plan to leave from in front of the train station in Oakland after charging overnight at the Lake Pointe Inn. If all goes to plan, we may only stop once to charge in Hagerstown. Around 3:30 tomorrow afternoon, we should roll into Ocean City to complete our #Oakland2OC electric road trip. We’ll pick up some Fishers Popcorn on the boardwalk before heading up to the Touch of Italy restaurant at the Holiday Inn for a late lunch and plug in to the brand new charging stations there.
We will be using the Tesla Autopilot extensively on the 325 mile trip tomorrow. Autopilot takes the EV experience from one pedal driving to no pedal driving.
Visit PlugInSites.org Wednesday starting around 8:00 AM for a live tracking map of our progress. [Drive completed in 6 hours, 41 minutes. Details.]
