8 Stall ChargePoint CHAdeMO + CCS site online in Mountain View

[miimura]

There is now a 8 stall DCFC site online in Mountain View, California. The site uses the ChargePoint Express 200 DCFC units that can output 125 amps to either its CHAdeMO connector or its CCS connector. This is the largest industry standard (ie. non-SuperCharger) fast charge site I know of in the United States.

PlugShare - NASA Ames - Visitor Parking Lot

This is only one exit south on US-101 from the Mountain View Supercharger.

 

[one5n1neSDoo]

very cool.

 

[kort677]

the evolution continues! stations like this need to be built out to the level that traditional gas stations are at now.
out of curiosity what cars here in the US are using the ccs standard?

 

[jbcarioca]

the evolution continues! stations like this need to be built out to the level that traditional gas stations are at now.
out of curiosity what cars here in the US are using the ccs standard?

Manufacturers: Ford, GM (Bolt/Ampera), all Europeans
At the moment the Porsche, Audi, Chevrolet, VW, BMW, MB plug-in hybrids/BEV's are the ones that are already on sale. Too many models to list here. Basically CCS is every vehicle that is not CHAdeMO (Nissan, Mitsubishi, Toyota) nor Tesla.

 

[TexasEV]

That looks like an impressive list for CCS, until you realize that Tesla sells more EVs in the U.S. now than all those companies put together. With the Model 3 the gap will widen further next year.

 

[Galve2000]

Truly a sight to behold. any Idea what the pricing is?

 

[jbcarioca]

That looks like an impressive list for CCS, until you realize that Tesla sells more EVs in the U.S. now than all those companies put together. With the Model 3 the gap will widen further next year.

..but will then narrow or disappear around 2020 when the flood of European BEV's begins in the US. How successful they'll be we cannot yet know, of course.

 

[jbcarioca]

On ChargePoint app it says 25 cents per minute

 

[miimura]

the evolution continues! stations like this need to be built out to the level that traditional gas stations are at now.
out of curiosity what cars here in the US are using the ccs standard?

CCS cars most likely to use this station are:

BMW i3
VW e-Golf
Chevy Spark EV
Chevy Bolt

CCS Newcomers that are recently available:
Ford Focus EV (2017 only)
Hyundai Ioniq Electric

CHAdeMO cars available to use this station:
Nissan Leaf
Kia Soul EV
Mitsubishi iMiEV
Toyota RAV4 EV with JdeMO
Tesla Roadster with JdeMO
Tesla S & X with CHAdeMO adapter

 

[BrokerDon]

On ChargePoint app it says 25 cents per minute

25¢ per minute? OUCH

This is why ChargePoint and other commercial chargers have become "emergency only" chargers for me. Not only are they expensive, but typically either slow or "out of service".

Pity the other non-Tesla & Bolt EV owners who have to use these to travel around SoCal past their 60 to 100 mile range.

 

[miimura]

25¢ per minute? OUCH

This is why ChargePoint and other commercial chargers have become "emergency only" chargers for me. Not only are they expensive, but typically either slow or "out of service".

Pity the other non-Tesla & Bolt EV owners who have to use these to travel around SoCal past their 60 to 100 mile range.

ALL public charging is "emergency only" for me or a rare longer distance trip in our non-Tesla cars. Using fast chargers like these represents such a small percentage of my driving energy usage that the convenience, when needed, is well worth the price. I signed up for ChargePoint in 2013 with a $20 deposit, basically as insurance. My balance is now $15.36 without adding any funds.

This location will be useful because:
1. It's at a high traffic freeway intersection.
2. The number of stalls guarantees that a working one will be available.
3. The pricing structure guarantees that people won't be over-staying and charging to 100%
4. There are no manufacturer sponsored free charging plans that cover these chargers, so it will not be clogged with free-loaders.

It's also one freeway exit from the Mountain View Supercharger, so if you're in a hurry and there is a line at the Supercharger, you would be able to get enough energy here to continue on your trip before you even got a plug at the SpC. However, unlike the San Mateo Supercharger and its co-located Chargepoint fast chargers, there are no services (stores and restaurants) at this site.

 

[Galve2000]

25¢ per minute? OUCH

This is why ChargePoint and other commercial chargers have become "emergency only" chargers for me. Not only are they expensive, but typically either slow or "out of service".

$15/hr is not terrible. I mean I get it, I too would rather it be free or even cheaper -- and $10/hr or $0.06/min ($9/hr) is better.. but as long as it is comparable to ICE or cheaper, its not that bad.[/QUOTE]

 

[xbox4me62]

$15/hr isn't too bad I guess. I'm assuming there's no session fee. Pricing is on par with a ICE that gets ~27mpg on premium fuel for me. Chademo max I've seen is 44kw. 44kwh gets you ~130 rated miles (correct me if my estimates are off).

 

[e-FTW]

There is now a 8 stall DCFC site online in Mountain View, California. The site uses the ChargePoint Express 200 DCFC units that can output 125 amps to either its CHAdeMO connector or its CCS connector. This is the largest industry standard (ie. non-SuperCharger) fast charge site I know of in the United States.

PlugShare - NASA Ames - Visitor Parking Lot

This is only one exit south on US-101 from the Mountain View Supercharger.

Next to NASA Ames? Can you see anything cool from there?

 

[SageBrush]

$15/hr isn't too bad I guess. I'm assuming there's no session fee. Pricing is on par with a ICE that gets ~27mpg on premium fuel for me. Chademo max I've seen is 44kw. 44kwh gets you ~130 rated miles (correct me if my estimates are off).

I was figuring 25 cents for 0.75 kWh, so 33 cents a kWh or about 8 cents a mile in a Model 3.

As an emergency charge, it is fine by me.

 

[Cosmacelf]

Looks like these Chargepoint stations use a similar architecture to a Tesla Supercharger in that the pedestals just have electronics and cables, and the inverters are located elsewhere in cabinets.

 

[arnolddeleon]

ALL public charging is "emergency only" for me or a rare longer distance trip in our non-Tesla cars. Using fast chargers like these represents such a small percentage of my driving energy usage that the convenience, when needed, is well worth the price. I signed up for ChargePoint in 2013 with a $20 deposit, basically as insurance. My balance is now $15.36 without adding any funds.

This location will be useful because:
1. It's at a high traffic freeway intersection.
2. The number of stalls guarantees that a working one will be available.
3. The pricing structure guarantees that people won't be over-staying and charging to 100%
4. There are no manufacturer sponsored free charging plans that cover these chargers, so it will not be clogged with free-loaders.

It's also one freeway exit from the Mountain View Supercharger, so if you're in a hurry and there is a line at the Supercharger, you would be able to get enough energy here to continue on your trip before you even got a plug at the SpC. However, unlike the San Mateo Supercharger and its co-located Chargepoint fast chargers, there are no services (stores and restaurants) at this site.

The four points are key. I've been driving EVs for over 15 years and I've grown to despise free public charging. I also call single station charging locations "EV traps". Several days ago I took a trip to SF, the free pier 39 charging stations were both in use, one of them by green stickered car that was already done charging when I got there at 9:30 am and was still there when I left at 3:30 pm. I stopped by this NASA ames station for 12 minutes in my JdeMO equipped RAV4-EV to get enough charge plus a little cushion to make it to the San Jose Convention center parking garage which had pay charging stations. Got there plugged it, went to my 2.5 hour meeting, and was good to drive hard on my way home. Today I took a trip to Berkeley. I knew that if I went easy I could make the round trip but I chose a garage with *pay* stations to improve my odds of getting a charge. Too bad Chargepoint doesn't offer a filter to only show pay charging. Of course I'm hoping to even do less charge management when I get a Model 3 LR.

arnold

 

[miimura]

Looks like these Chargepoint stations use a similar architecture to a Tesla Supercharger in that the pedestals just have electronics and cables, and the inverters are located elsewhere in cabinets.

No, these pedestals made by Tritium have a complete water cooled charger built in. There is just 3-phase AC power going into the pedestal.

 

[RDoc]

Personally, I have no problem with the pricing. If there are going to be a significant number of EV charging stations built outside of Tesla, the owners have to make enough money to pay for them. Actually, Tesla has the same problem, you may think it's theft to charge so much for Supercharger enabling (assuming they keep doing that) when you only use it once a year or so, but the issue is capital cost. If you want the charger to be there at all, it has to be paid for.

What I do have a problem with though is that these are 48 KW chargers. It's pretty pathetic IMHO to be installing such chargers when longish range EV's are being built. That's going to be around 160 miles of charging per hour, so if you drive 70 mph for 2 hours, it's going to take about an hour to recharge including exiting, plugging in, etc. So an hour of charging for 2 hours of driving?

Fail.

 

[miimura]

What I do have a problem with though is that these are 48 KW chargers. It's pretty pathetic IMHO to be installing such chargers when longish range EV's are being built. That's going to be around 160 miles of charging per hour, so if you drive 70 mph for 2 hours, it's going to take about an hour to recharge including exiting, plugging in, etc. So an hour of charging for 2 hours of driving?

Fail.

Until there are cars that can actually take more than what these chargers can take, what are the charging providers supposed to do? Right now, the only cars that can take even 80kW are the Hyundai/Kia cars - Soul EV and Ioniq EV. I think they can take up to 200 amps but the total number of these cars on the road is still extremely small. It still has not been determined to my satisfaction what the actual limit is on the Bolt EV. If someone has a reference for that, I'd like to see it. I would also like to see how much a 2018 Leaf can take from a DCFC.