New California Corridor Fast Chargers Installed

[Larry_in_Seattle]

It still seems to be a 'death valley' for lack of chargers from Sacramento north to the Oregon border.

Are there plans to fill in the 295 mile gap along I-5? If so, when?

 

[TonyWilliams]

The CEC narrowed a field of 35 proposed installations down to nine specific proposed awards, likely to be shared by four participants. Of those, biggest winner was ChargePoint, which received preliminary approval for three segments of the fast-charging corridor totaling $3,659,615—about 42 percent of the available funding. EV Connect received three proposed awards totaling $1,843,179. NRG EV Services received two valued at $1,659,928, and Recargo—the company behind the PlugShare station-finding app, as well as PluginCars.com—received one proposed award worth $1,632,735.

The recipients will have some time to complete their projects. The grant requires completion by 2020. This will coincide with a steady uptick in EV adoption. Navigant Research projects that in California, the growth in electric car sales will be from about 3 percent of overall sales today to between 15 and 22 percent by 2024.

 

[miimura]

It still seems to be a 'death valley' for lack of chargers from Sacramento north to the Oregon border.

Are there plans to fill in the 295 mile gap along I-5? If so, when?

This is the CEC North-South Corridor funding plan:

I-5: North from Sacramento:
. . . 8 sites from Red Bluff to Yreka - ChargePoint
. . . 5 sites from Woodland to Orland +1 in Yuba City (99 corridor) - EVgo
South from Sacramento:
. . . 8 sites from Stockton to Valencia - ChargePoint
. . . 1 site in San Clemente - Recargo

101: 8 sites from Gilroy to Buellton - Recargo

There is no schedule provided and the hard deadline for completion is March 31, 2020. The North-South Corridors were Noticed for Proposed Award in February 2016. The Interregional Corridors were Noticed in October 2016 and likely have a slightly later hard deadline.

See the Google Map I made that includes the specific site addresses for proposed and existing corridor sites.

 

[miimura]

It appears that two new L3 chargers are going into Hollister at a Lucky's grocery store. Here's the link on plugshare. I'm not sure when they will be completed. They are on the EVGO network. Here's the link:

https://api.plugshare.com/view/location/121731

This will make possible to avoid the Bay Area when going up to Sacramento from SLO, but it will be necessary to take SR-99 instead of I-5 since there isn't a decent L3 charger until Tracy which is still off the I-5. There are EVRUS/EV EXpress units (at 25 kW) along I-5 but since the cost is quite high ($0.59/kWh+$2.95 service fee) and they are single units it still makes it dicey along I-5.

The Hollister EVgo site is open now. Two ABB chargers.

 

[miimura]

The Dutch Flat EVgo / DriveTheArc site is finally open with two BTC 100 amp fast chargers.

Dutch Flat 76 Station

The next site up I-80 in Emigrant Gap has 4 fast chargers already installed at the Nyack Shell station, but it is not operational yet.

The final DriveTheARC site on I-80 has been found. It will be at the Shell station at the Kingvale Exit, #171.

Kingvale Shell

 

[miimura]

Still no power at the 3 sites on the way to Tahoe from Sacramento.

However, a new fast charging site popped up in Bakersfield. It's a ChargePoint Express 200 50kW Veefil unit at the Kern Federal Credit Union. Very good price - only $0.05/minute for the first hour, then $0.10/minute.

Plugshare: Kern Federal Credit Union, Bakersfield

 

[miimura]

Finally, a new Corridor Fast Charger is online.

Nyack Shell in Emigrant Gap on I-80. This site has 4 BTC "50kW" dual-standard chargers on the EVgo network. 3 appear to online and ready to go, one shows as being offline in the DriveTheArc app.

PlugShare: Nyack Shell

 

[miimura]

DriveTheARC is finishing their buildout. The following sites are now online:

South Lake Tahoe: Plugshare - Raley's South Y Center
South San Jose: Plugshare - Lucky Supermarket, Bernal Rd.
Gilroy: Plugshare - Walmart Supercenter
Sunnyvale: Plugshare - New Seasons Market

The Kingvale Shell site on I-80 and the Strawberry site on US-50 are the only remaining sites in the network that are not active yet. They are both installed, but either not fully provisioned or powered by PG&E yet.

One note about DriveTheARC - you must set up your account profile with a vehicle that came with CHAdeMO from the factory in order for the app to give you the "Promo Ticket" that enables free charging. I initially had my vehicle set to RAV4 EV and it didn't work. I changed it to Kia Soul EV and it now works as expected. I avoided setting it to Nissan Leaf because they have some integration with the Nissan telematics system to pass through the SOC for research purposes. I wanted to avoid any potential confusion in the app.

 

[miimura]

The CEC has issued an Addendum to the Localized Health Impacts report for the California Interregional Corridors grant GFO-15-603. The awardee EV Connect Inc. has requested the location changes below.

The new locations are close to the originals. Strangely, the site with the city change is actually the shortest move, basically across the street. The Lancaster site moved the furthest. It's about 2.2 miles from the original site, a bit away from highway 14 at City Hall. The Palmdale site moved about a mile, just to the other side of the highway.

 

[geo]

It still seems to be a 'death valley' for lack of chargers from Sacramento north to the Oregon border.

Are there plans to fill in the 295 mile gap along I-5? If so, when?

Looks like the Redding site just popped up in Plugshare. That bridges the gap to Oregon a bit.

1280 Dana Dr. Redding CA

https://api.plugshare.com/view/location/134821

 

[miimura]

It still seems to be a 'death valley' for lack of chargers from Sacramento north to the Oregon border.

Are there plans to fill in the 295 mile gap along I-5? If so, when?

Looks like the Redding site just popped up in Plugshare. That bridges the gap to Oregon a bit.

1280 Dana Dr. Redding CA

https://api.plugshare.com/view/location/134821

Nice find. That cuts the longest CHAdeMO powered leg from San Francisco to Portland to 134 miles - Redding to Ashland. It will be nice when we can skip Chico too.

So it begins...

 

[miimura]

The Kingvale Shell site is now open. EVgo and DriveTheARC. Two BTC chargers right off I-80.

Plugshare - Kingvale Shell

Only one more DriveTheARC site is "coming soon". Strawberry Station General Store is waiting for PG&E to install a new power pole in the highway right-of-way and it needs CalTrans approval. Typical bureaucratic delays.

 

[geo]

I'm still waiting for chargers on the Barstow -> Nevada segment along I-15 for trips to Vegas.

Any idea when the Baker chargers will be installed? EVGo was supposed to have broken ground there almost a year ago.

Blythe and Chiriaco would also be nice.

 

[user 340]

It still seems to be a 'death valley' for lack of chargers from Sacramento north to the Oregon border.

Are there plans to fill in the 295 mile gap along I-5? If so, when?

Looks like the Redding site just popped up in Plugshare. That bridges the gap to Oregon a bit.

1280 Dana Dr. Redding CA

https://api.plugshare.com/view/location/134821

Nice find. That cuts the longest CHAdeMO powered leg from San Francisco to Portland to 134 miles - Redding to Ashland. It will be nice when we can skip Chico too.

So it begins...

Nice find indeed! Is that the first site from the 2015 CEC solicitations to become operational?

I contacted Recargo about the ones on Highway 101 (Gilroy to Buellton) a few weeks ago, and they told me that ground-breaking on the first sites was "imminent."

 

[miimura]

Nice find indeed! Is that the first site from the 2015 CEC solicitations to become operational?

I contacted Recargo about the ones on Highway 101 (Gilroy to Buellton) a few weeks ago, and they told me that ground-breaking on the first sites was "imminent."

I believe this is the very first one from the North-South and Interregional Corridor grants. It's good to hear that Recargo is finally putting shovels to the ground. I'm much more likely to use those than the Redding site.

 

[evdrive]

So freaking awesome about the Redding station. That cuts 4-5 hours off the trip to Oregon from San Francisco. One DC station seems like a lack of long term planning. There really needs to be 2-4 stations per site. Making some progress though so I'm excited.

 

[swogee]

Nice find indeed! Is that the first site from the 2015 CEC solicitations to become operational?

I contacted Recargo about the ones on Highway 101 (Gilroy to Buellton) a few weeks ago, and they told me that ground-breaking on the first sites was "imminent."

I contacted Recargo and again I just got the usual generic reply from a "Jordin". See below.

Hi Steven,

We will make a public announcement once we are ready to release information on our Recargo Network.

Best,

Jordin

tgreene, who are you contacting at Recargo that is more forthcoming with info?

 

[user 340]

tgreene, who are you contacting at Recargo that is more forthcoming with info?

I just contacted them with a short note to their public email address, [email protected], on October 18. Jordin Williams wrote me back later that day with this reply:

"Hi Tom,

We are rapidly expanding and preparing to break ground on our initial Recargo Network charging location. We will definitely make an announcement when we can release further details.

Best Regards,

Jordin"

It appears that they sent us consistent messages.

 

[miimura]

The Strawberry Station site on US-50 is now open. EVgo and DriveTheARC with two BTC chargers.

This completes the DriveTheARC network. As far as I can tell, all their planned sites are now open.

Plugshare - Strawberry Station General Store

 

[miimura]

A new Localized Health Impacts Report was released by the CEC today that updated sites proposed by ChargePoint for their Inter-Regional Corridor sites. There were 16 site changes made. Most are not significant. However, some were moved a significant distance along the same corridor.

Localized Health Impacts Report Addendum 2, GFO-15-603

Significant moves:
Nipton -> Beacon Station (Baker address) which moves it from the Primm side of Baker to the Barstow/Yermo side of Baker. There is now a much longer stretch without chargers toward the Nevada state line on I-15.

Willits -> Ukiah, which is better because there was a redundant station by Recargo in Willits and the spacing is better.

Two sites in Mojave were consolidated to one site.

Dutch Flat -> Soda Springs