new DC FCs along state highways in central CA

[cwerdna]

Wasn't sure if it should go here or North America.

Learned of the below from 22 new fast charging stations in Central California and and a Bolt driver in Facebook Groups who was trying out some of them and posting about them.

New Electric Vehicle Fast Chargers Now Available Along State Highways in Central California | Caltrans says there are 22 new DC FCs across 9 locations. From the few pics I've seen, they look like they're all dual-standard CCS and CHAdeMO DC FCs.

I tried finding the one in Madera on Plugshare, to no avail. I believe the tool that "The U.S. Department of Energy has a searchable database on public alternative fuel stations in California and nationwide" refers to is Alternative Fuels Data Center: Alternative Fueling Station Locator.

I searched Alternative Fuels Data Center: Alternative Fueling Station Locator and also couldn't find the Madera station, yet.

Once COVID is over, for those who have the CHAdeMO adapter and wish to travel between Nor Cal and So Cal during peak holiday times, one might be better off charging at one of these (or any other 40+ kW CHAdeMO station) instead of waiting in a long Supercharger line...

 

[israndy]

Wow:

The Level 3 DC fast chargers provide an approximate 80 percent charge in 30 minutes to EVs with fast-charging capability. The chargers have universal connectors and are able to serve all EVs on the market, including Teslas with an adapter. Charging is free with no time limit.​

Always love finding new stations. Especially those that are paid for by those driving gas cars with their carbon offset taxes. I have been using the Camp Roberts stations to get from SF to LA for free, pretty good, but only charges at 24kW so this might be an upgrade.

I have not had any luck finding the stations though. I think this announcement is about 22 stations COMING and the 4 at Tejon Pass are installed, but haven't made their way onto any database yet. I did some searching in the Alternative Fuel database above and found:

Station 176188

Which is the same location and network as: PlugShare Station 182002 "Denny's"

But it is certainly not listed as a FREE charging stop, it's actually more expensive than the Tejon Ranch Supercharger location at this same exit. It also includes a photo of the station and it's the traditional ChargePoint station, not the same as in the photograph from the article:

I am finding some of the other stations from the article above on Plugshare, links below:

• Tejon Pass Rest Area Interstate 5
• Junction Route 58/Route 184 in Bakersfield
• Caltrans Maintenance Station on Route 41 and next to I-5 in Kettleman City
• Caltrans Maintenance Station, 805 S. Lexington St., next to Route 99 in Delano
• C.H. Warlow Rest Area NB/SB Route 99 in Kingsburg
• Philip S. Raine Rest Area at SB Route 99 near Tulare
• Philip S. Raine Rest Area at NB Route 99 near Tulare
• Caltrans District 6 Office, 1283 N. West Ave., next to Route 99 in Fresno
• Caltrans Maintenance Station, 125 W. Almond Ave., next to Route 99 in Madera

Worth checking out, some are definitely listed as FREE

 

[miimura]

These are the two sites that don't have links in the list above:
CalTrans Maintenance Station, Kettleman City
Tejon Rest Area Southbound

These sites in Northern California are also CalTrans sites.
Moon Lim Lee Rest Area
CalTrans Maintenance Station, Willow Creek
Randolph Colier Rest Area
Transportation Department, Clearlake Oaks

My understanding is that the Rest Area sites are prohibited from charging a fee by statute. The sites located at CalTrans maintenance facilities don't have that restriction, but they are free so far.

Check out the linked map below and remove the checks next to the CEC GFO and Existing sites. That will highlight the CalTrans sites.
CEC DC Fast Charge Sites - Google My Maps

 

[miimura]

There is also an earlier thread about these in the charging infrastructure sub-forum.

At last, DC fast-chargers at CA Interstate Rest Areas!

 

[Fadiawesome]

I used the one in the fall brook I-15 park and ride and they were the 100amp chademos, not 125, so I was only getting 37-38 kw. Still very cool, and free, but I wish that they would install fast dc chargers, not these ones, as cars are able to charger faster and faster, and these essentially become useless for long travel since there so slow. 150kw should be the baseline.

 

[cwerdna]

I used these to go to So Cal in my Bolt last week and mentioned them at lots of great free charging as a tourist going from the Bay Area to the LA area - My Nissan Leaf Forum. I spent nothing on charging going down there thanks to these chargers + PlugShare - Find Electric Vehicle Charging Locations Near You in Bakersfield that turned out to be free.

Coming back, I used these stations again, but not necessarily the same ones. I did spend a tiny bit of $ with EA in Santa Clarita ($3.10) and Gilroy ($0.93) + L2 w/EV Connect ($0.16) near my hotel. When I arrived in So Cal, I subscribed to EA Pass+ for $4 figuring I'd need to DC FC a bunch. It turned out to be not the case, surprisingly.

All the Caltrans sites I went to had at two DC FCs except for Tejon Pass which had 4 but 3 were broken. All the units were CHAdeMO + CCS1 BTC Fatboy units. Some of the LCDs had huge black solid circles in random places. I wonder if the LCDs suffered damage from the heat? Some that I used were at a maintenance depot and others were at rest areas.

I noticed in the OP, I mentioned Madera. It used the chargers there on both directions of my trip.

I skipped PlugShare - Find Electric Vehicle Charging Locations Near You in Fresno as at the time, it looked like most/all the chargers were down due to cables being cut by copper thieves.

The goofiest one is Tejon Ranch since it's only accessible from I-5 south. If you come up I-5 north, you need to exit at Lebec to get onto I-5 south then exit for the rest area. IIRC, you may only be able to get onto I-5 south from the rest area and thus need to take the next exit (not far) to get back on I-5 north.

 

[israndy]

As these new free CalTrans chargers get busy it's gonna be the norm having to go to the one on the opposite side of the highway as I did at the Maxwell, CA charging going to Seattle for Thanksgiving, a Bolt beat me to the northbound one, so I took the southbound charger and then another Bolt pulled in southbound. Fortunately they have CCS and could use the A&W in Maxwell that I couldn't with my CHAdeMO adapter.

On another thread I see that the EA chargers are free again for the holidays (no links, just anecdotal reports):

This was me "Welcome, Free", just a few minutes ago, no card, no phone, just plugged in and told it to charge.