New L3 chargers at various rest stops in CA.

[swogee]

There is apparently a plan to put free L3 chargers at various rest stops along the California freeways and highways. In San Luis Obispo/Monterey County there are 60 kW L3 charging stations going in at the Camp Roberts rest stops on 101 and the Shandon rest stop on 46. They will be solar powered apparently. Unfortunately there will only be one charging station (Chargepoint) at each location. The supposed date of installation is late this year to early next year. This info is still unofficial at this point.

It looks like 2020 will be the year we get L3 charging stations between SLO and Salinas that are not single installations unless Electrify America/CARB has some that will be built before then.

On a side note there is a new Tesla Supercharger going in at SLO at the Madonna Inn. The site was supposed to originally used by Sunspeed back in 2015 but plans fell through apparently due to a lack of funding.

 

[user 340]

Who is installing these chargers, and how is this coordinated with the ones that were partially funded by the California Energy Commission in 2016 and are being constructed now?

Reference documents:

http://www.energy.ca.gov/contracts/GFO-15-601_NOPA.pdf
https://chargedevs.com/newswire/recargo-to-help-complete-the-west-coast-electric-highway/

 

[swogee]

The stations are being funded by CALTRANS and by various other grants from other state agencies such as CARB.

See the document at the link below for more info.

http://www.dot.ca.gov/hq/transprog/ctcliaison/2017/1217/superbook/49_4.20_Combined4Linking.pdf

I did my best to try to convince them to put higher powered L3 charging stations (350-400 kW) and at least two at each site for a redundant setup (or an L2 station as a backup) but it fell upon deaf ears. I guess something is better than nothing until 2020.

 

[user 340]

Thanks for the info. I see from the document that Caltrans will deploy them at locations in their purview that fill in the gaps in the California Energy Commission deployments and perhaps other private DCFCs. There have been rumors that Caltrans planned to install DCFCs at rest stops etc. for quite awhile, and it is nice to see this being implemented, even if only on a small scale (30+ locations).

The cost per site (~$600K) seems quite high compared to the ~$250K (grant + private) cost of the CEC ones. It is interesting that the Caltrans document calls for the DCFCs coming into service by November 2018. Hopefully most of the ones funded by the CEC in 2016 will also be in operation by then. Recargo reported that they were breaking ground on the 101 corridor ones last fall.

A few of the CEC-funded sites along the 101 corridor will have 2 DCFCs (Gilroy, Paso Robles, Buellton).

 

[miimura]

This is good news. Camp Roberts is in the middle of the gap in the CEC planned sites between King City and Paso Robles.

The Valley Wells Rest Area (EB & WB) on I-15 is also a very good location. ChargePoint recently moved their site from Cima Rd. to Beacon Station, leaving nothing between Baker & Primm. The Valley Wells Rest Areas are almost exactly the midpoint of that segment, very close to the original Cima Rd. location.
Also on I-15, the Kane Rest Area is near the midpoint between the planned ChargePoint sites in Beacon Station and Yermo.

Another interesting tidbit:

The Interstate 5 - Oregon to Southern California EV Corridor will provide 12 DCFC charging station
locations. Eleven Caltrans installed charging stations with no user cost will occur at safety roadside rest
areas serving Interstate 5. One location for electric use charging will be installed at the Caltrans
Kettleman City Maintenance Station, serving both Interstate 5 and Routes 41 & 46 - Fresno to Central
Coast EV Corridor. The Caltrans installed stations conform to California's DC Fast Charger Corridor
Network

Scrolling through the report it seems ALL the Roadside Rest Area DCFCs will have no user cost. In other words, FREE.

 

[davewill]

... Scrolling through the report it seems ALL the Roadside Rest Area DCFCs will have no user cost. In other words, FREE.

I'd almost rather they had a fee. People who don't particularly need to use these out of way locations will do so just because they're free, and those of us with shorter range cars who need to use them will be stuck in line.

 

[swogee]

I tend to agree that if a charging station is free people will use it even when it isn't necessary. Unfortunately, there is a federal mandate (for rest stops at least) that prohibits CALTRANS from charging for services hence the free L3 charging stations. I just wish they had put in at least two charging stations at some of the sites or at least an L2 unit as backup in case the one L3 unit is down so a driver could try to make it to an alternate site. I don't like gambling that a single unit will be available.

The stretch between San Luis Obispo and Salinas is one I don't like driving in my EV since I have to stop in Paso Robles to charge for an hour and then I need to limit my speed to 55 mph to make it to Salinas since it's almost a 100 miles.

 

[miimura]

I tend to agree that if a charging station is free people will use it even when it isn't necessary. Unfortunately, there is a federal mandate (for rest stops at least) that prohibits CALTRANS from charging for services hence the free L3 charging stations. I just wish they had put in at least two charging stations at some of the sites or at least an L2 unit as backup in case the one L3 unit is down so a driver could try to make it to an alternate site. I don't like gambling that a single unit will be available.

The stretch between San Luis Obispo and Salinas is one I don't like driving in my EV since I have to stop in Paso Robles to charge for an hour and then I need to limit my speed to 55 mph to make it to Salinas since it's almost a 100 miles.

With the CEC funded chargers going in at Paso Robles, King City, Greenfield, and Gonzales, this stretch won're really be a problem next year. Since all of the sites except Paso Robles are single DCFC + L2, you should stop at an earlier one so that if it's broken you can continue to the next one without resorting to using the L2.

Regarding the no-cost charging at rest stops - these are relatively remote locations with few services, so I don't expect that they will see much use except for the travelers they are intended for. The fact that the rest stops are separate for each direction of the highway, they do provide some redundancy even if you have to continue to the next exit and double back, twice.

 

[geo]

Scrolling through the report it seems ALL the Roadside Rest Area DCFCs will have no user cost. In other words, FREE.

Looks like there will be some chargers along the 395 corridor. This will make it possible to go to up to Mammoth and the Eastern Sierras.

These, combined with the CEC chargers and Electrify America should open up almost the entire state. Finally, some progress!