greengate said:
hyperlexis said:
UPDATE -- I just tried using the keyring card that Carcharging.com mailed me, and it totally would not work on an L3 charger in Chicago (Western Ave. Jewel parking lot.)
I called the 800 number on the charger (the old number for 350green, and got transferred to carcharging.com's system. The guy who answered said than no, whoever sent me their card was wrong, it will not work on the "Charjit" chademo chargers that 350green owned. He also said you must have a separate charjit card, and they had no idea if or when carcharging.com will be able to supply them.
A manager called me about an hour later and said it is true, they now own all the 350green L3 chargers, but the manufacturer of the chargers says 350green owes them money, so they will not allow carcharging.com to issue any Charjit cards... The manager said he understands the problem, but they just don't know anything yet. He also said they went from being a small company to now one that owns thousands of chargers to deal with. Well you'd think they would know about the 350green debt disputes after spending millions of dollars to buy them.... And would make sure the L3s were their's free and clear to operate when the deal closed.
This would be funny if it wasn't so absolutely insane. What a disaster. So now the only folks who can use the L3s in Illinois are basically those with old Charjit cards. Because I don't know of any chademo stations in the Chicago area other than those owned by defunct 350green, including all the tollway chargers.
Why didn't the state just buy these stupid things on its own? Install hundreds of QC units along strategic routes, make them publically available for free, and really do something for the public when the state says it wants to be the greenest in the US.
Oh no, instead it tried to privatize things, giving money to a company operated by scam artists, who, to make matters worse, in turn, charged people exorbitant rates for each QC session, and relied on proprietary access cards. Total BS.
I hope Nissan puts its free L3 chargers in every one of its dealers in the US and drives inept, for-profit companies like carcharging.com/350green out of business. If the other states or feds wont directly install public units themselves (like in California and other progressive areas) then Nissan and Tesla should pick up the slack. Otherwise EV sales growth will remain stunted by poor QC availability.
Companies like these are the Blackwaters of the EV industry.
Totally agree.
Agree as well.
Just an FYI for anyone that cares... I recently spoke with Kate Tomford from the Illinois Energy Office at the Illinois Department of Commerce & Economic Opportunity. She was very courteous and reiterated all things I already knew about 350 Green and CarCharging (though she did pretty much tell my HyperLexis' new card wouldn't work before I read these recent posts, sorry 'bout that, was hoping she was wrong.) She did however tell me that the City of Chicago (the main player) and the State of Illinois (kind of a sidekick to the city) are putting pressure on CarCharging to get the ball rolling and here's how... **deep breath** here we go...
Basically you are right, Efacec, the Portuguese manufacturer of CharJit stations is owed money by 350 Green, who put them up. CarCharging bought 350 Green and knows they now inherited the debt owed to Efacec and as such can't issue new CharJit cards. They also know there are tons of malfunctioned CharJit stations needing repair.
Problem for them, and therefore us, is that they are entangled in a lawsuit with the locally based JNS Holdings who also entered into a contract with 350 Green. CarCharging does not want to invest more $$$ into fixing these stations or into paying off Efacec when, in their eyes, they might still be at risk for losing the legal battle with JNS Holdings. Basically CarCharging thinks "Why pay all this money to fix stuff when we may lose a lawsuit and the winning company gets the benefit of all our work/investment?"
I can't say I blame them for waiting for a legal outcome. This contract was not an outright purchase agreement, however, so in the eyes of the City and State, CarCharging OWNS 350 Green and should act as if they do without regard for the "What IF?" possibilities of losing a legal battle. The City and State unofficially feel that there is no chance they will lose to JNS too since JNS-Green deal wasn't a full buyout, just an agreement. Moreover, the City and State feel CarCharging should payoff Efacec, fix broken stations, build new ones, and issue new cards NOW and is pressuring them to do so apparently. They are encouraging CarCharging, if they should lose to JNS, to then counter sue to recoup the work/investments put into doing all the payoffs, fixing, card issuing, new station construction, etc.
... Well that was a mouthful. I'll be keeping tabs with this Kate Tomford every so often and will keep you updated. May reach out to her at the end of August/beginning of September. She was also very helpful with info regarding the IL rebates on in-home L2 EVSE's but that's for another thread.
Dumb. They do have L2 chargers if you want to sit there for hours....
