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DC Fast Chargers Under Construction on Eastern Shore

October 26, 2015October 26, 2015 Lanny

Driving an electric vehicle along Route 50 to the Maryland beaches will soon be far more practical. Royal Farms stores in Cambridge, Salisbury, and Ocean City have broken ground for SAE Combo and CHAdeMO fast charging stations. Once they are operational, these fast chargers will allow folks driving a BMW i3, Chevy Spark EV, Nissan LEAF or other fast charging equipped EV to hopscotch their way along Rt. 50 from the Washington-Baltimore area to Ocean City.

EV Charger Ocean City, MD Royal Farms Store — Ocean City, MD Royal Farms Store

Route 50 to Ocean City Becoming “Electrified”

In March, the Maryland Energy Administration announced the 2015 Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Program (EVIP) grant winners. The $1,000,000 EVIP grant will be used to install fast chargers throughout the state by October 1, 2016. The grant recipients must pay for at least half the cost themselves and it is a requirement to support both SAE Combined Charging System (CCS) and CHAdeMO standards at each location.

The Royal Farms convenience store chain won grant funds to install chargers at 15 of their stores. I’ve been scouting the Royal Farms stores in Cambridge, Salisbury, and Ocean City for signs of construction every time I happen to drive past them. Sometimes I would go in and ask the store manager when the charging stations were coming. At first they had no idea what I was talking about. In recent months they knew about the plans, but didn’t know exactly when they would be installed.

EVIP MAP-7-26-15 — Click map to get details and charger location addresses of planned EVIP CHAdeMO/SAE Combo locations.

Cambridge, Salisbury and Ocean City Coming Soon

This weekend, my search finally paid off. I was driving out to Ocean City and as I approached the Royal Farms on the south side of Cambridge, my eyes scanned the edges of the parking lot where a charging station would likely be installed. I caught sight of two green bollards next to some new electrical panels. As I drew closer, I saw a freshly poured concrete pad with electrical conduit jutting out. The chargers were not installed yet, but construction was well under way.

EV Charger Salisbury, MD Royal Farms Store — Salisbury, MD Royal Farms Store

As I traveled east on Rt. 50, I stopped at the Royal Farms in Salisbury and Ocean City. The construction at both locations was at a similar state of progress as Cambridge. The Salisbury store even had signs in place. An inspection sticker at the Cambridge site had a date of October 21, 2015 on it. I suspect that the ground was broken on all three within the past week or so.

Stay Tuned for Updates

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Workplace Charging in California – Projected Need by 2020

October 23, 2015 Lanny

CARB-01 Workplace charging has a long way to go. This slide from yesterday’s California Air Resources Board (CARB) meeting shows 1,775 Workplace Level 2 charging stations currently installed in California. (as of September, 2015)

In order to meet the state’s goal of having infrastructure to support 1 million Zero Emission Vehicles (ZEVs) by 2020, there needs to be between 82,000 and 144,000 L2 charging stations according to a report* by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory prepared for the California Energy Commission. *CEC-600-2014-003

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EV Charging in Ocean City at Holiday Inn Oceanfront

October 20, 2015November 3, 2015 Lanny

photo: Ocean City Hotels by Harrison Group

UPDATE: These stations are powered on now.

Exciting news for EV drivers traveling to Ocean City, Maryland. The Holiday Inn Oceanfront in OC has six EV charging stations. A note on their Facebook page says, “We are excited to be able to offer this amenity to our EV guests, and look forward having you charge towards a greener future with us.”

A representative of the hotel told PlugInSites, “We just got them up yesterday and are waiting for the electric company to come and finish the job.”

The installation includes four Tesla HPWCs and two ClipperCreek universal stations. The universal stations have J-1772 connectors that can charge any modern electric car.

The Holiday Inn Oceanfront is located on 67th Street in Ocean City. Visit them on the web at holidayinnoceanfront.com

Stay tuned for updates on when these charging stations will be online and ready to use.

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Tesla Autopilot “Cannonball Run” Record Attempt

October 19, 2015 Lanny

deena1 — photo: Carl Reese, @EVrecordattempt

Alex Roy, Carl Reese and Deena Mastracci, are apparently attempting to set a record for fastest Autopilot equipped Tesla to drive coast to coast. Alex Roy held the cross country “Cannonball Run” NY to LA driving record for a number of years with a BMW M5 that covered the distance at an average speed over 90 mph with top speeds reaching 160 MPH. Roy’s record was broken in October, 2013 by Ed Bolin who drove the distance in 28 hours, 50 minutes and 26 seconds.

Carl Reese, his fiancé Deena Mastracci, and Rodney Hawk drove Reese’s Model S P85D 3,011 miles from LA to New York in 58 hours and 55 minutes in April, 2015. They are listed in the Guinness World Records as having the least non-driving time to cross the United States in an electric vehicle at 12 hours, 48 minutes and 19 seconds. This beat the record set by a pair of Model S sent by Tesla Motors in early 2014 when the Supercharger network was established to the point that would enable cars to drive coast to coast exclusively using Supercharger stations.

I got a clue that something was up this morning when @AlexRoy144 tweeted, “What Is The Level 2 Autonomous Driving Record? Enquiring Minds Want to Know” #Tesla #Autopilot

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) proposed classification system, a Level 2 automated vehicle system has at least two controls that can be automated in unison, such as adaptive cruise control and lane keeping.

Alex Roy put a video on Instagram from Richfield Utah with a red Model S with the alarm going off in the background asking, “Has Elon Musk bricked our Tesla Model S in the middle of our level 2 autonomous driving cross country road trip?”

A photo posted by Alex Roy (@alexroy144) on Oct 19, 2015 at 7:59am PDT

Another Instagram photo shows 90 MPH on a dim speedometer display with this note: I’m sorry, officer. I couldn’t read how fast the car was driving itself. #NotAllExcuses

This team is likely to be the first to cross the United States since Version 7.0 with Autopilot was released to the public. I’m excited to see Alex Roy in the car with the two experienced Tesla drivers. Roy recently shared his thoughts on the consequences for driving enthusiasts in an autonomous car future in an article, “How Science Fiction Failed Us: The Real Future Of Autonomous Cars.” Worth a read.

@Lanny

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The Talking EV Charging Station

October 15, 2015November 3, 2022 Lanny

The new Signet dual-connector DC Fast Charger at the Municipal Building in Blacksburg has a unique feature. It talks!

Step-by-Step Voice Instructions

A woman’s voice emits from a loudspeaker in the front panel of the unit to give the operator step-by-step instructions on how to use the charger. In the video below, she explains how to end a session. “Your charge is completed. Disengage the connector from your vehicle and confirm that you want to stop the charge by pressing the stop button.” After the button is pushed, the voice says, “Please return the connector to its cradle and close the door until it clicks. Thank you for using our service.”

Enables Trips in the Shenandoah Valley

We recently used this Fast Charger in Blacksburg on our way back north after driving 200 miles of the Blue Ridge Parkway. It delivered 132 mi/hr and we easily made it to the Tesla Supercharger in Strasburg in our Model S 70D in mild fall temperatures. As of October, 2015 it is free to use and you don’t need a card or smartphone app of any kind.

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Tesla Sales Location at Westfield Annapolis Mall

October 14, 2015October 14, 2015 Lanny

TeslaAnnapolisWestfield01 — Tesla display in Annapolis Mall near J Crew

As a result of the Maryland legislature voting to pass and the governor signing HB-235, there can be up to four locations in the state where Tesla can engage in sales activity. One of those locations is the Montgomery Mall in Bethesda which opened a little over two years ago. A Tesla Sales and Service Center is coming to Owings Mills according to the Tesla Motors website.

Tesla has also announced that they will have an Experience Center at the Westfield Annapolis Mall beginning on Monday, October 19th. This location will only be open through December and will offer test drives and the ability to configure and place an order for a car.

TeslaAnnapolisWestfield03

The Tesla Experience Center is set up like a kiosk in the main hall of the mall across from the J Crew store in the vicinity of JCPenney.

TeslaAnnapolisWestfield02 — Tesla Model S cars charging in the Red Garage

On October 13th, there were four Teslas parked on the ground level in the Red Garage with three of them plugged into the Level One outlets that are designated by the Mall for EV charging. These are presumably test drive cars. At the present time, there are no HPWCs or NEMA 14-50 outlets in the garage.

October 2015 Ribbon Cuttings in Virginia

October 12, 2015October 13, 2015 Lanny

City of Charlottesville Downtown DC Fast Charger Ribbon Cutting
Oct 13, 2015, 11:00 am – 12:00
Ribbon cutting at the Charlottesville, Va Downtown Mall on Tuesday, October 13, 2015 at 11:00 a.m at the charging station located at 1st and Market Parking Lot.
Address:
First and Market Parking lot
Charlottesville, VA

Christiansburg EV Roundup and Blacksburg DC Fast Charger Ribbon Cutting
Oct 13, 2015, 12:00 pm – 3:30 pm
There will be a ribbon-cutting on Tuesday, October 13, 2015 at 2:30 pm at the DC Fast charging station located in the parking lot at 300 S. Main Street in Blacksburg.
Address:
300 S. Main St.
Blacksburg, Virginia 24060

Brown Harris Wealth Management Open House with Tesla Test Drives
Oct 13 12:00 pm – 6:00 pm
Brown Harris Wealth Management has moved to a new location at 309 N. Main Street in Culpeper, VA. They’ve installed an electric vehicle charging station at their new building. Tesla Motors will have a car to test drive at their open house on Tuesday, Oct. 13 from noon to 6:00 p.m.

Croc’s 19th Street Bistro.
October 15 at 6:00 pm

Ribbon cutting for a Tesla destination charging station at Croc’s 19th Street Bistro in Virginia Beach.
Address:
620 19th St.
VA Beach, VA 23451

Great Smoky Mountains National Park Gets EV Charging

October 1, 2015September 19, 2021 Lanny

The Great Smoky Mountains National Park now has four electric vehicle charging stations open to the public. The stations were unveiled by the East Tennessee Clean Fuels Coalition and the National Park Service, at a ribbon cutting ceremony on September 30, 2015.

The charging stations were installed at two locations, Sugarlands and Oconaluftee Visitor Centers on Newfound Gap Road in the Smokies. Each Visitors Center has both a Level 2 charging station and a dual-connector (CHAdeMO & SAE Combo) DC Fast Charger.

Park Superintendent Cassius Cash said, “Putting this equipment in use will help us meet our goal of reducing our greenhouse gas emissions from 2006 levels by 20% by 2020.”

Coordinator of the Land of Sky Clean Vehicles Coalition Bill Eaker said, “The park is a clean transportation leader within the National Park Service and is setting a great example for other parks and fleets across the nation.”

Joint funding from the Dept. of Interior and Dept. of Energy is helping a number of national parks advance their goals toward reducing greenhouse gas emissions from park operations and improving air quality in and around the parks. According to the Clean Cities National Parks Initiative website, Catoctin Mountain and Shenandoah National Park are due to get EV charging stations.

“To help keep views along scenic Skyline Drive clear, Shenandoah National Park is acquiring a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle, an all-electric vehicle, and three EV chargers.”
“Catoctin Mountain Park will replace two conventional vehicles with plug-in hybrid electric vehicles and install three electric vehicle charging stations for park and public use.”

Stay tuned for updates.

Tesla Can Sell Cars in Maryland as of October 1st, 2015

October 1, 2015October 13, 2017 Lanny

sh09a

Today, October 1, 2015, a new law goes into effect that will allow Tesla to sell cars in the state of Maryland. HB 0235, introduced by Montgomery County Delegate Kirill Reznik, passed a vote on April 13, the last day of the 2015 legislative session with only five minutes to spare.

HouseEnvComm — Bob Erdman and Lanny Hartmann testify in the House Environment and Transportation Committee in support of Maryland HB 235 with Jeff Cadman, Delegate Kirill Reznik and James Chen of Tesla Motors looking on. Feb. 19, 2015

The bill was supported by the Maryland Dealers Association which agreed to allow as many as six locations. However, General Motors wanted to limit the number to two locations. In the end, the bill was amended to allow up to four dealer licenses to be issued.

Maryland HB 235 Bill Signing Governor Hogan

HB 0235 was signed into law by Gov. Hogan on May 12 at a ceremony attended by several Tesla drivers who represented the support of the Tesla community for the direct sales model employed by Tesla Motors.

Here is a summary of the new law.

HB 0235 – Sale of Electric or Nonfossil-Fuel Burning Vehicles

This bill authorizes a manufacturer or distributor to obtain no more than four licenses as a vehicle dealer if the manufacturer or distributor deals only in electric or nonfossil-fuel burning vehicles, no dealer in the State holds a franchise from the manufacturer or distributor, and the manufacturer or distributor does not have a controlling-interest relationship with any other manufacturer or distributor licensed as a dealer under the bill.

Effective October 1, 2015

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Statewide Network of EV Charging Stations in Delaware

September 29, 2015September 29, 2015 Lanny

PlugInSites Map Charging Up Delaware Network — click image to open interactive map

Electric vehicle drivers can now use a statewide network of high-power Level 2 charging stations in Delaware. The “Charging Up Delaware” program has placed 11 new EV charging stations at five locations throughout the state under a partnership between the University of Delaware and the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control (DNREC).

Enables EV Travel Throughout the Entire StateThe state of Delaware is 96 miles long and the distance between charging locations is less than 50 miles in order to enable travel in the entire state for electric cars with shorter range, even in winter. Gov. Jack Markell said, “By strategically locating stations throughout the state, our citizens and out-of-state visitors now have convenient access to charge electric vehicles for both long and short trips.”
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