Public L2 Charging at Seal Beach, Southern California

[Boomer23]

The City of Seal Beach would like to invite you to the Electric Vehicle Charging Station Ceremony.

The City is proud to present the recently completed installation of 2 stations for a rate of $2.52 per 2 hour time period in the public beach parking lot. The ceremony will take place on
July 11, 2011
5:00pm, Monday
8th Street Beach Parking Lot

Please join us and bring your vehicle down.

If you have any questions I my be reached at:

Michael S. Ho, City Engineer
City of Seal Beach - 211 Eighth Street, Seal Beach, CA 90740
(562) 431-2527 Ext. 1322

For Information about Seal Beach, please see our city website: http://www.sealbeachca.gov

EDIT: PLEASE NOTE, I WAS TOLD THAT PRICING FOR CHARGING AND PARKING ARE STILL UNDER REVIEW.

The above was posted by Mr. Micheal Ho on the Southern Cal LEAF Branch thread. Several of us attended the ceremony today. Here are pics and a story.

Two ChargePoint Level 2 charging docks (two single L2 charge points, no L1 connections) are located in the 8th Street parking lot adjacent to Main Street and the Pier (with Ruby's Diner) in Seal Beach. This location is handy for those traveling Pacific Coast Highway south of Long Beach and north of Huntington Beach.

The ceremony was attended by xtremeflyer, 1051 (and Mrs. 1051), mwalsh, and Boomer23 from this forum, as well as two other LEAFs, and one LEAF brought by Nissan's Tim Gallagher, a total of seven LEAFs, two Volts, two original RAV4s, a Plug-in Prius prototype, and a Tesla Roadster. The Mayor of Seal Beach and one of State Senator Tom Harman's aides spoke. The Mayor proclaimed these two charging docks "The first ones at any beachside parking lot in Orange County". There will be a third charging dock located somewhere on Main Street. Well done, Seal Beach, and thanks for the sandwiches and cookies afterwards.

True beachside EV parking

EVs lined up

Most of the LEAFs in attendance

Prius Plug-in, Tesla and two Volts

Prius Plug-in in the foreground

The ceremony begins

The two charging docks, Level 2 ChargePoints

Nissan's corporate LEAF demonstrating charging, plugged in by The Mayor

Lots of interest from attendees

Boomer23's LEAF charging up

 

[Kataphn]

Thank you, Boomer for this write up. It is always great to read your accounts and see the pictures. Looking forward to trying out the docks on a ride down the coast.

 

[Jimmydreams]

Great write up!

Great Pics!

Great location!

Horrible signage!! A simple "reserved for EV vehicles" would suffice to turn away 90% of the ICE drivers. (sigh)

 

[KeiJidosha]

Thanks Boomer for the write up, and thanks to Seal Beach for supporting public opportunity charging.

I'm sorry I missed the event. The E is still in for service. A good turnout though!

 

[TRONZ]

Well done! Love the pics. Plan to head up there this week and check it out.

 

[z0ner]

Great write up!

Great Pics!

Great location!

+1. Thanks Boomer for taking your time to inform the community. It's very much appreciated.

Horrible signage!! A simple "reserved for EV vehicles" would suffice to turn away 90% of the ICE drivers. (sigh)

Agreed J. The one they install on Main St. best have adequate signage otherwise it will be completely useless.

 

[mwalsh]

Agreed J. The one they install on Main St. best have adequate signage otherwise it will be completely useless.

That's a good point, and one I'll point out to the city fella that invited us.

Another stellar write-up Boomer....saving me tons of work! :lol:

Newspaper report from The Los Alamitos Patch. That's me in my "New Driver" shirt, talking to Steve the Tesla owner:

http://losalamitos.patch.com/articles/seal-beach-becomes-first-oc-beach-to-offer-electric-vehicle-charging

 

[TRONZ]

Why are these units not showing up in the ChargePoint App? Looks like an email is in order. They are actually pretty good about responding to email requests.

 

[z0ner]

Why are these units not showing up in the ChargePoint App? Looks like an email is in order. They are actually pretty good about responding to email requests.

They currently show on mine, and I've used them twice now. Unfortunately the signage is poor and the spots are constantly getting ICEd.

 

[greenleaf]

Newspaper report from The Los Alamitos Patch. That's me in my "New Driver" shirt, talking to Steve the Tesla owner:

http://losalamitos.patch.com/articles/seal-beach-becomes-first-oc-beach-to-offer-electric-vehicle-charging

Last paragraph in the above article says

State law prohibits the city from passing the costs of the electricity on to consumers, so people can charge their cars for less than a few dollars per hour in Seal Beach.

How does this reconcile with "PRICING FOR CHARGING AND PARKING ARE STILL UNDER REVIEW"?

 

[Danny]

How do they actually collect the money? I might be interested in giving it a try sometime when I get a little more gutsy, but it would definitely have to be available or I won't get home. Hmm, I suppose there is always the possibility of coming home by way of Cerritos Nissan if I had to. Could be a long charge though. This would be very cool.

 

[z0ner]

They have a couple of electronic kiosks that simply print out a receipt after you indicate the length of time and pay (you can even use a credit card). Make sure the receipt is visible in your dash and you're good to go.