We were traveling in the DC area last week, and needed to charge as we were heading out from Arlington (VA) to New York City on Thursday, September 27. So we went to the new charging site at Laurel, MD. (I have not read back through this thread so I do not know how long it has been open, but I gather it was opened just recently.)
Some observations from someone from outside the area, totally new to this site, for whatever they are worth:
• The navigation system directed us here, which I was glad to see because I understood it was a newly opened site.
• When we got close to the site, the navigation seemed to misdirect us a bit. Perhaps because of some construction going on in the area, or maybe because the site is in a garage, it was a bit difficult to figure out just where the chargers were. But after a false turn around the back of Harris Teeter, we noticed the parking garage and headed there. (I have noticed other instances in which chargers located in parking garages seem to be difficult to navigate to.)
• On the rainy Thursday morning when we were there, there were no other cars charging, and in fact hardly any other cars in the lower level of the garage. Wandering around the mall, we noticed few other customers. It looks to be a brand new mall, so maybe it has not yet attracted many customers. Or maybe it was the rain.
• We asked a couple of people where we could get coffee while we waited for the charge (we needed a good deal of charge as the SOC was around 10% or less) and were directed to the Starbucks concession in Harris Teeter. It struck us that the mall is not very easy to navigate from the garage, especially in the rain. We saw no store directory and Harris Teeter’s entrance and many other stores are not visible when you exit the garage. This is a comment on the mall layout, not on the superchargers themselves. If you have not yet been there, this is a “lifestyle” mall, with stores spread out over a large area and with separate entrances for each store. There is no enclosed corridor or common space, no food court, etc. One disadvantage of such malls is apparent when you try to navigate one on foot for the first time, in the rain. It is especially true here, because the garage with the chargers is on one side of the mall and away from most store entrances. There are restaurants, but scattered around with some on the far side from the garage. The closest food place is a (very noisy) ribs place directly across from the garage entrance.
• We got a fast charge, so that was the good news. I did not note the actual charge rate except at the start, but it started at over 100 KW, pretty fast for my 70D.
So, we got the charge we needed, and a snack and something to drink, so we were content. But be aware that you might need to walk a bit to get to whatever food or drink you might prefer.
Some observations from someone from outside the area, totally new to this site, for whatever they are worth:
• The navigation system directed us here, which I was glad to see because I understood it was a newly opened site.
• When we got close to the site, the navigation seemed to misdirect us a bit. Perhaps because of some construction going on in the area, or maybe because the site is in a garage, it was a bit difficult to figure out just where the chargers were. But after a false turn around the back of Harris Teeter, we noticed the parking garage and headed there. (I have noticed other instances in which chargers located in parking garages seem to be difficult to navigate to.)
• On the rainy Thursday morning when we were there, there were no other cars charging, and in fact hardly any other cars in the lower level of the garage. Wandering around the mall, we noticed few other customers. It looks to be a brand new mall, so maybe it has not yet attracted many customers. Or maybe it was the rain.
• We asked a couple of people where we could get coffee while we waited for the charge (we needed a good deal of charge as the SOC was around 10% or less) and were directed to the Starbucks concession in Harris Teeter. It struck us that the mall is not very easy to navigate from the garage, especially in the rain. We saw no store directory and Harris Teeter’s entrance and many other stores are not visible when you exit the garage. This is a comment on the mall layout, not on the superchargers themselves. If you have not yet been there, this is a “lifestyle” mall, with stores spread out over a large area and with separate entrances for each store. There is no enclosed corridor or common space, no food court, etc. One disadvantage of such malls is apparent when you try to navigate one on foot for the first time, in the rain. It is especially true here, because the garage with the chargers is on one side of the mall and away from most store entrances. There are restaurants, but scattered around with some on the far side from the garage. The closest food place is a (very noisy) ribs place directly across from the garage entrance.
• We got a fast charge, so that was the good news. I did not note the actual charge rate except at the start, but it started at over 100 KW, pretty fast for my 70D.
So, we got the charge we needed, and a snack and something to drink, so we were content. But be aware that you might need to walk a bit to get to whatever food or drink you might prefer.
