TEPCO/CHAdeMO Level III "quick" charging station/connector

[dadaleus]

Wow. They are every 25 miles now in Oregon with plans to be all the way up and down I-5 from the Mexico border to the Canada border.

First big piece of West Coast ‘Electric Highway’ gets fast chargers for electric vehicles

Really makes me want an adapter for the S. Even if Tesla has a Super Charger every 100-200 miles, it would be good to have alternatives. It would be frustrating to travel and find the Super Charger in use, and even worse to find it offline, and have no quick alternative.

 

[Lloyd]

Chicago appears to be getting Chademo EVSE's

Charging station prices: Charging station prices announced in Chicago - Chicago Tribune

 

[doug]

Chicago appears to be getting Chademo EVSE's

Charging station prices: Charging station prices announced in Chicago - Chicago Tribune

The headline:

Quick-charging stations in Chicago area to cost drivers $21 for 45 minutes

Slower and more plentiful charging stations remain free

Umm... That sounds more expensive than gas.

 

[dadaleus]

That sounds more expensive than gas.

If this was a Super Charger, 45 minutes would get you what, 200 miles, in the S from what I remember them saying? So that would be about 6 gallons of gas in many cars. That would cost $24-30.

But you're right... in a Leaf even if that fully recharged you you only get 70 miles, so that's going to be only 2-3 gallons of gas or $8-15 of gas. So it is more expensive than gas.

 

[doug]

At best this unit probably does 50kW. So that comes to 56 cents per kWh (as a lower bound).

How did they determine their pricing? I guess the people that use it really need it.

 

[Robert.Boston]

It's $21 for 3 15-minute sessions -- which is a little better, IMO. You could use these to get 12.5kWh in a burst, which should take you ~35-40 miles. That might just be enough to get you where you're going some time. Probably most useful for EVs with little batteries.

 

[dadaleus]

The good thing about this approach in general is it should keep the charger from being tied up long. Moving a bit off topic, I'm a little worried about the scenario where I'm doing a long distance drive and am counting on a super charge only to get there and find that either it's tied up for some indeterminable period or much worse that it's out of order. I wish we had accepted etiquette that once a car is done charging it's perfectly okay to unplug it. I run into fully charge cars taking up all the J1772s at work all the time. Of course that new law in California means you could get the person towed. And Volt's car alarms seem to go off when you do this. It would be nice if Tesla posted on super chargers that it's perfectly okay to unplug a car that has completed the DC charge cycle (whatever complete is defined as since I don't think they fully charge using DC) and put some clear indicator right on the charger.

 

[richkae]

If you need to use quick charging every day then the expense is a problem.
I anticipate using it 3 or 4 days per year and then $21 for 45 minutes does not bother me.

The business of quick charging is just a loser. They are in for a rude surprise. I don't think it is viable - at least in the near term.

 

[jerry33]

The business of quick charging is just a loser. They are in for a rude surprise. I don't think it is viable - at least in the near term.

For EVs with a decent range (right now this is limited to Tesla), the only time you need a quick charge is on a trip. And even then RV parks are everywhere. It's just a different mindset to use them. My thought is that after driving for three or four hours, a couple of hours (even if it's four) rest isn't actually a bad idea before starting on the next three or four hours drive.

When I was looking at the Leaf, the EVGO system wanted $50 per month for the cheapest plan--which included the charger. Given that they had only one charging location (I think they have two now). I couldn't see getting my money's worth.

 

[dadaleus]

For EVs with a decent range (right now this is limited to Tesla), the only time you need a quick charge is on a trip.

I agree with this.

And even then RV parks are everywhere. It's just a different mindset to use them. My thought is that after driving for three or four hours, a couple of hours (even if it's four) rest isn't actually a bad idea before starting on the next three or four hours drive.

Not quite with you there. I do a 340 mile one-way drive to take my wife and kids to visit my parents and my sister's family every few months. We pretty much go straight through with maybe a break for lunch. It only takes 5-6 hours. I'm figuring with a 300 mile S I'll have an effective standard range at 75mph freeway speeds of only about 200 miles based on my Roadster experience. If I use range mode I can pile on probably another 50, but I don't like using the lower reserve--gotta leave enough cushion. So I won't need a complete recharge, but I'd still need a couple hours on a HPC. If I had to use a 30amp J1772 it would be 4-5 hours. That would definitely slow us down quite a bit from our current hybrid ICE trip which would not be cool. Sure, if I'm taking my time a break while traveling can be fine, even nice. But in this case we're leaving after school/work and need to get there so it's not 1am. Since we're turning around two days later it really matters.

Luckily I'm pretty sure their will be a Super Charger en route though, so a quick 30 minutes stop for bathrooms and to grab food and we should be good to go. So in this case I'd say the existence of the Super Charger is critical to us deciding to use the EV for these trips vs. the ICE.

 

[dpeilow]

please keep this to CHAdeMO...

 

[dadaleus]

please keep this to CHAdeMO...

Sure. I should have been clearer that my point is whether quick chargers including CHAdeMO are really useful or not. That was the intended relevance of the post although I did meander off topic.

 

[TEG]

CHAdeMO installed and working at Stanford Shopping Center in Palo Alto, CA...

My Nissan Leaf Forum View topic - San Francisco Bay Area Quick Chargers Getting them sooner

It is the big green [3] on the 350Green map:
Electric Cars, Chargers and Infrastructure Locate

350Green Installs its First Quick-Charge Station in California | PluginCars.com

 

[doug]

CHAdeMO installed and working at Stanford Shopping Center in Palo Alto, CA...My Nissan Leaf Forum View topic - San Francisco Bay Area Quick Chargers Getting them sooner

Look at that huge cabinet near by. Is the cabling from the cabinet to the pedestal running under the concrete?

 

[Kevin Sharpe]

Look at that huge cabinet near by. Is the cabling from the cabinet to the pedestal running under the concrete?

Yep....By way of comparison, here's what a 43kW AC Charging Station looks like (14" x 6" x 5") :wink:

 

[TEG]

Look at that huge cabinet near by. Is the cabling from the cabinet to the pedestal running under the concrete?

Yes, they cut a big channel in the parking lot to run the cables under the cement.
They also poured a new pad for the main box.

 

[TEG]

Some more pics of the pedestal/kiosk part:

 

[TEG]

More pictures:

 

[ElSupreme]

Would that cord be long enough to plug into a Model S? I know it is CHAdeMO and it won't work, but are they just catering to Leafs (Leaves?)?

 

[TEG]

Would that cord be long enough to plug into a Model S? I know it is CHAdeMO and it won't work, but are they just catering to Leafs (Leaves?)?

Yeah, I was thinking about that... Seems intended for cars with "nose ports" (e.g., LEAF)

If Tesla were to make a CHAdeMO to Model S adapter that was a ~3 foot cable (like they did with J1772->Roadster) then it could work...


By the way, this charger is "right in Tesla's backyard" (about 1/2 mile from their Menlo Park sales/service center, and close to HQ), so, if they do make an adapter, I bet this would be one of the first "public" places they test it.