Join WA Gov. Inslee at opening of Nissan Fast Charging Depot in Bellevue

[Six]

To WA State Tesla Owners,

You are welcome to meet up with fellow EV owners (presumably a bunch of Nissan Leaf owners will be there) and join Governor Inslee this coming Monday (3/16) at the grand opening of 5 publicly-available DC fast charging stations in Bellevue. At 3:30, Governor Inslee will join Bellevue Nissan, Nissan of North America and NRG representatives in cutting the ribbon on this exciting new resource for the expansion of electric vehicles.

Please feel free to pass along this invitation to other interested parties. Nissan of Bellevue has hosted general EV events in the past (like a Plug in America event two years ago) and always been open to Tesla owners. Maybe a local owner can bring a Tesla CHAdeMO adapter.

Bellevue Nissan
14762 SE Eastgate Way
Bellevue, WA 98007

 

[ChadS]

Thanks, Six. I knew about the event but hadn't even thought about showing up with my CHAdeMO adapter, which I haven't tried yet. I will likely show up. (Though there will likely be a long line of LEAFs waiting to use the chargers in front of me!)

My, how things progress. A few years ago Inslee was at an opening for 2 30A J1772 stations in Redmond, and now he's at an opening for a place with 5 CHAdeMO chargers (5 public ones, plus 3 more for private use).

 

[JohnMc]

I'll try to be there with Lady T and my ChAdeMO adapter. I keep hearing about the new Nissan site opening etc but haven't seen it specifically said whether this is in addition to their current location on NE 8th St. or in addition to the NE 8th location.

 

[dirkhh]

360 miles round trip on a work day. Why am I tempted to go? Right, because it's for a good cause. Or maybe it's an excuse to drive my car (assuming I have it back by then. pfffft)

 

[TexasEV]

I suppose we should be excited that there will be a Chademo installation that can charge multiple cars at one time (it only took 28 months since the opening of the first Tesla supercharger on the west coast), but couldn't they find a better place for it than a Nissan dealer? Haven't they learned anything from Tesla?

 

[breser]

Well it's tempting to show up to this.

 

[PhilBa]

I suppose we should be excited that there will be a Chademo installation that can charge multiple cars at one time (it only took 28 months since the opening of the first Tesla supercharger on the west coast), but couldn't they find a better place for it than a Nissan dealer? Haven't they learned anything from Tesla?

Assuming that's not a rhetorical question, no, they clearly have learned nothing.

 

[ReddyLeaf]

Well, I would love to attend but unfortunately I need two additional DCQC's in eastern WA (the other 2/3 of the state) to get there with my 2011 Leaf. I would like to tell Gov. Inslee, even though he moved out of our district, not to forget the dry side.
Ironically, I may actually be in western WA during this event, but alas driving a gasser and with other obligations.

 

[brianman]

You have to drive part of the parking lot backwards but the 2nd charger does work. 102A @ 360V = 37 kW. $10.55 for 1/2 hour.

 

[gglockner]

Oh man, this is like walking distance to my home. I've got a lot of work this afternoon do but it's tempting to go. Then again, I don't have a CHAdeMO adapter.

 

[Six]

Another reason to be there is just to support EVs in WA State. Let Governor know people care about this issue.

 

[ChadS]

Dang, that was crowded. I couldn't find a place to park and there were still cars coming in that needed to charge to get home, so I left. I supported the event in spirit.

Did anything exciting happen?

 

[JohnMc]

I drove up this morning to see the new location. They moved their whole dealership from NE 8th St in Bellevue to this location. The Infiniti dealership will be moving into their old location but the CHAdeMO chargers were left at the old site and will continue to be available as before. As you turn into the new location drive straight back to the end of the lot where the 3 nrg eVgo CHAdeMO chargers are located but as Brianman said you will have to turn around or back in. There is a 4th CHAdeMO along the side of the building but outside so apparently it will also be accessible 24/7. I chose to go in this AM because I didn't want to return home to Tacoma in the rush hour traffic. Here are some pictures. This is my first exposure to the nrg system and the video panel on the unit was interesting because it showed the amps & volts as well as the % charge which matched what was shown on the Tesla display.

 

[gglockner]

ChadS, I figured that was you in the yellow Roadster! (I said hello while parking in my white Model S). I eventually found parking in their lot. No big news, but still worth attending to support the added EV infrastructure. Chatted with a few folks afterwards.

 

[breser]

I wanted to come but today's schedule didn't support making it there on time today.

 

[fawu]

Here's the Nissan press release. Not too surprisingly, Tesla Superchargers apparently don't seem to exist - oh well...

Gov. Inslee, Bellevue Nissan Open New EV Fast-Charging Depot | Business Wire

 

[ww73]

Another article.

Bellevue Nissan Opens Fast-Charging Depot With Six CHAdeMOs In Washington State

JohnMc, how much did it cost to charge?

 

[fawu]

I checked these out tonight. Good news is that charging is currently free, and you don't need any card at this time - just push the Start button. What's not to like about that? Just not sure if it will stay that way.
Connecting these eVgo chargers - with button, handle and handle lock - to the Tesla adapter is a bit more complex than for example the Blink L3 stations.

My MS60 drew a solid 35kw at ~60% SOC. There is a 30 min. session limit now. You can probably do multiple sessions in a row, but probably need to return to the car for that.

At 7 pm on a workday the dealer lot was full with mostly new dealer cars to the extent that it was a bit hard to navigate around. Worse, 5 of the 6 chargers were blocked by ICEs or Leafs that weren't charging.
The dealership was still open and they might have moved cars around on request - I didn't ask. The charging cables are fairly long (maybe 12 ft), so that should give some more options in an emergency situation.
It's at a good location being so close to the I90 & 405 intersection, and a few restaurants are in walking distance.

This "depot" is as close as it gets so far to a non-Tesla Supercharger equivalent. Yet it still made it clear to me again how much of an edge Tesla really has with a their much more mature concept that is already rolled out nationally and internationally.

FWIW, Bellevue Nissan does have a nice-looking 2013 S85 on the lot, black w/black leather, Pano, 17k miles, VIN27xxx, advertised at $80k.

 

[gglockner]

At 7 pm on a workday the dealer lot was full with mostly new dealer cars to the extent that it was a bit hard to navigate around. Worse, 5 of the 6 chargers were blocked by ICEs or Leafs that weren't charging.

Then these are not really public chargers; they are private chargers for the Nissan dealer, who might let others use them if they're not too busy. That's a huge difference from a Tesla Supercharger: it's a rare day when you have to ask someone to make space for you at a Supercharger.

 

[brianman]

I checked these out tonight. Good news is that charging is currently free, and you don't need any card at this time - just push the Start button.

Odd. The ones up front were $10+ for an hour the day before the Inslee event.