It started in Oregon, can the rest of us be far behind?

I-5 in Oregon gets charging stations for electric cars

Electric car owners traveling on Interstate 5 in Oregon don't have to worry about running out of juice after fast-charging stations opened Friday.

By JEFF BARNARD

Associated Press

CENTRAL POINT, Ore. —

Electric car owners riding along Oregon's Interstate 5 don't have to worry about running out of juice on the open road.

The first major stretch of what's been dubbed an "Electric Highway" on the West Coast from Canada to Mexico went operational Friday with the opening of a series of fast-charging stations along 160 miles of the interstate.

The eight stations stretch from the California border north to the Oregon city of Cottage Grove and are located at gas stations, restaurants and motels just off I-5, the nation's second-busiest interstate. One station is at an inn that was once a stage coach stop.

They are spaced about every 25 miles, so a Nissan Leaf with a range of about 70 miles can miss one station and still make it to the next.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/big-piece-electric-highway-juice-15937601" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Portland's charging infrastructure is starting to rock. My wife has the Leaf at a friend's house 25 miles across town.
She has 2 bars left and gom says 15 miles. She needs a charge on the way home. There are level 2 chargers every couple miles at convinient locations spread around town at many different stores and two quick charging locations on the way back home. So many choices... She probably will either stop at Electric Ave and grag a QC for a few minutes or run by a grocery store and grab a few things while charging up. All for free, for now except the groceries.

Go Oregon !!!!

That ABC News article is riddled with inaccuracies. 45 kilowatt battery? And they make it sound like using a level 1 EVSE won't increase your electric bill, but a level 2 will. That makes no sense.

But, awesome news overall! I can't wait for someone to install some in the NY area...

That makes me think of the California Missions. All a day's ride apart.

What's the reason for the lack of L3 at the major highway interesections at Eugene, Albany and Salem? The need is obvious.

The contract for I-5 level 3, from Eugene to Portland, was awarded to Ecotality/Blink. South of Eugene to the California border was awarded to Aerovironment. Aerovironment seems to have their act together better than Ecotality/Blink. They also have a more reliable product.

The start of the Electric Highway is great news.

Ecotality is not doing well at all. Their products are not up to par so far. I hope they can turn their sinking ship around. I'm glad Oregon didn't give the whole contract to Ecotality.

solardude said:

The contract for I-5 level 3, from Eugene to Portland, was awarded to Ecotality/Blink. South of Eugene to the California border was awarded to Aerovironment. Aerovironment seems to have their act together better than Ecotality/Blink. They also have a more reliable product.

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EVDrive said:

The start of the Electric Highway is great news.

Ecotality is not doing well at all. Their products are not up to par so far. I hope they can turn their sinking ship around. I'm glad Oregon didn't give the whole contract to Ecotality.

solardude said:

The contract for I-5 level 3, from Eugene to Portland, was awarded to Ecotality/Blink. South of Eugene to the California border was awarded to Aerovironment. Aerovironment seems to have their act together better than Ecotality/Blink. They also have a more reliable product.

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Sounds like they need someone in Oregon like Tony Williams to light a fire under them:

http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=43&t=8254&start=50" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

L3 might be slow to roll out until the SAE sets the standard. I read somewhere that the Chad protocol might not get adopted.

bigc70092 said:

L3 might be slow to roll out until the SAE sets the standard.

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Thats what the anti-EV car companies are hoping for. But they aren't bringing any infrastructure money, nor any EVs. Biggest problem for EVs is not oil companies but other auto companies.

EVDrive said:

The start of the Electric Highway is great news.

Ecotality is not doing well at all. Their products are not up to par so far. I hope they can turn their sinking ship around. I'm glad Oregon didn't give the whole contract to Ecotality.

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Does anyone know if these contracts require performance bonds? It would be nice to know that if Ecotality is a partial or total fail, that the tax funds used to pay for this won't be lost - the performance bonds would pay for someone else to do it right.

CA is bogged down with an electric train and hydrogen refuling infrastructure planning. :roll:

Uh, didn't it start in TN along I-40 & I-75 with a dozen DC's?

Anyone know how/where to sign up? Seems we will need a card or other device (Grr, I hate that).

I wrote to the New Jersey Transportation Authority (New Jersey Turnpike) requesting L3 chargers, and here was the response:


On Mar 21, 2012, at 12:23 PM, Trumpp, David wrote:


Dear ...:

The Patron Services and Business Development Department of the New Jersey Turnpike Authority (Authority) is in receipt of your e-mail involving the installation of EV Charging Stations on the New Jersey Turnpike. Our department oversees the (21) Service Area facilities operating on the Garden State Parkway and the New Jersey Turnpike.

At this juncture of time, the New Jersey Turnpike Authority is not considering offering any Electric Vehicle (EV) Charging Stations at our Service Area facilities operating on the Garden State Parkway and New Jersey Turnpike. However should legislation mandates our agency to offer such services and/or the demand for Plug-In Electric Vehicles captures a sizable portion of the automobile market and/or represents a large segment of vehicles using our roadway system, then the Authority will review this issue and consider offering such services within our Service Area Network at that time. Kindly note as quasi-state agency that we are required by state-law to acquire our contractors or vendors similar to AeroViromental through a bidding procurement process.

As the technology continue to improves it will make this segment of the automobile market more accessible and economical for the motoring public and allows service providers to fully charge an EV at our Service Area at a competitive rate and within our existing 2 Hour Parking Restriction.

Thank you for contacting the New Jersey Turnpike Authority and for your Service Area suggestion involving EV Charging Station facilities.

Yours truly,

David B. Trumpp
Marketing Coordinator
Patron Services and Business Development
New Jersey Turnpike Authority
732.750.5300, ext. 8483

David B Trumpp, Marketing Coordinator, is an illiterate. Yikes. :? And it's darn nice of them to wait for everyone to buy their electric cars before considering the installatino of chargers. Nothing like waiting for everyone to buy wagons before we begin importing horses.

What do you want him to do? Don't shoot the messenger...That's just not how government works! As he says, there would need to be legislation to authorize (he used the word mandate, but the spirit of the term is for all intents and purposes the same) providing charging services on the highways.

So the real beef is with Turnpike Authority, but rather with the state Department of Transportation and the state assembly. They are the ones that need to be acting proactively.

Having said that, I've been getting involved with a task force in my own state (NC) that is looking at this, and while we don't have toll roads like those in NJ with full service rest stops, I am coming to the conclusion that DC QC stations are probably better sited at commercial sites just off the highways, rather than at rest areas, which is basically the way WA and OR are doing it. The reasons may be purely out of convenience for now (federal laws prohibiting charging fees for services at highway rest areas; lack of adequate power infrastructure at rest areas), but in the end I think it makes sense to ultimately privatize DC QC.

- 30 minutes is a long time to wait at a rest area with only vending machines. Why not site the stations next to commercial entities that are more suited to waiting?
- In the future as demand for these charging stations grows, what will happen when we have to wait for 2 or 3 cars to each get their 30 minutes in? Then we're there for 90 minutes!
- Sure, we'd be at risk of being gouged to a certain extent for the power we used by a commercial entity (I think at least initially however the stations are still managed by the government agencies), but in a rest area situation where the stations are put in in a government bidding situation vs. a more competitively purchased situation, we as taxpayers in general are going to get gouged for the price of the equipment. I say kick start the DC QC stations by siting them on a commercial property with some kind of lease agreement and once the lease agreement is up (and by then hopefully demand is higher), ownership transfers to the commercial entity and then open it up to competition.

I realize the situation in NJ is different because those are toll roads and drivers there do expect full services on them and it makes sense to offer charging at rest areas. AND that should be a no brainer for the govt to pass whatever mandates to make that happen. They have the infrastructure; the demand is probably high and on those corridors it would make a ton of sense. But outside of those situations I really do like the WA/OR model.

lpickup said:

I say kick start the DC QC stations by siting them on a commercial property with some kind of lease agreement and once the lease agreement is up (and by then hopefully demand is higher), ownership transfers to the commercial entity and then open it up to competition.

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We have that now. The US Government Dept of Energy pays Ecotality up to $100 million (they've spent over $33 million of that) to give you a free DC charger.

They're not getting many takers. At least not as many as the grandiose plans of 30 in San Diego, and 220 on the west coast electric highway, etc.