Quick Charging comes to Southern California

MY . . . what a BIG HOSE I messed with today !!
(I feel so naughty ... and I took pictures - enjoy the view!)
Yes, such a big hose . . . that my assistant had to hand it to me
:lol:



It was quite an experience today ... clunking that big ol' locking lever onto the as yet - UNUSED PORT ! But now? The big port has become usefull -









Oh yea! . . . I love the look of the little red light, built onto the head of that monster hose. I love the sound of the big voltage and big amps, ramping up a fan that sounds like a piper cub revving up for takeoff. Anyway ... this went so fast, I hardly had time to appreciate it. Below is a shot just after the charger completed its handshake with our Leaf:



Before I knew it ... the dang thing had charged me up from about 38% to 69%-70% ... a whopping SEVEN (count 'em) minutes! I could actually watch the little meter (below) moving right along - amazing.



I charged for just a few minutes more and disconnected early, at just 76%. It's hard for me to accept such overwhelming graciousness ... and so I naturally ingratiated all over my host. Below is my favorite ... shot of the solar array that runs the place. WOW



btw ... once your map program "sees" the charger ... it'll look a bit different from the usual plugs - it's a full blown charger !



Boomer23 reported a comment from the Mitsubishi ev engineer during the Cerritos meet up. He said once you use it? ... it's like crack ... you can never go back. I think I know what he's talking about.

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Too cool!

Awesome!!!

I have to pick up 3 people at LAX tomorrow morning, about 10 AM. I could go up to Mitsubishi, top up to 100% in perhaps 10 minutes, go on to LAX and then back, taking another 5 or 10 minutes to get enough e's to make it home.

Home to QC is 29 miles, on freeway, with some hills. Then, QC to LAX and back is about 60 miles, almost all freeway.

So, using the QC would really make the trip "work", instead of requiring about 4 hours of L2 charging and carefully slow (60 mph) driving.

Very cool, hill. Did you just pull in and "get it on", or did someone come out and greet you?

I think I'm going tomorrow afternoon.

garygid said:

I have to pick up 3 people at LAX tomorrow morning, about 10 AM. I could go up to Mitsubishi, top up to 100% in perhaps 10 minutes, go on to LAX and then back, taking another 5 or 10 minutes to get enough e's to make it home.

Home to QC is 29 miles, on freeway, with some hills. Then, QC to LAX and back is about 60 miles, almost all freeway.

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You're not going to get to 100% in 10 minutes for sure... Let's say you leave home w/100% charge, get to the Mitsubishi QC station with 60% charge - 10 minutes will probably get you to ~85-90%. That last 10-15% to 100% will probably take another 15-30 minutes as the car tapers off the charge rate to minimize stress to the battery. So you're probably best off charging to 80-85% or until the charge rate drops significantly, then driving accordingly to/from the airport (park in the EV lot at LAX while you pick up your passengers and hope that there is a J1772 station available for you to use), then stopping long enough on the way back to give you plenty of charge for the last leg home (QC to 50% or so?).

One can see from hill's photo that he charged 6.5 kWh in 8 minutes which would indicate a average charge rate of close to 50 kW. But the current power level on the charger is only 22 kW (395V * 55A) so the rate has quickly dropped already around 75% full.

What was the procedure for accessing the unit? Did you simply pull up and use it or was it necessary to go into the lobby and get someone to unlock it? If the latter, how much hassle was that...were they able to find the right person easily (and who was that person)?

Is the QC port also dependent on the charge timer in that, if you have the charge timer set, you have to use the override switch, just as you would with the L2 port? I can't imagine that it is, but since I've not use the port yet......

mwalsh said:

What was the procedure for accessing the unit? Did you simply pull up and use it or was it necessary to go into the lobby and get someone to unlock it? If the latter, how much hassle was that...were they able to find the right person easily (and who was that person)?

Is the QC port also dependent on the charge timer in that, if you have the charge timer set, you have to use the override switch, just as you would with the L2 port? I can't imagine that it is, but since I've not use the port yet......

Click to expand...

I didn't even presume to PARK under the dome of PV. No - I went the extreme humble route . . . parking out in the visitor area, then going to the main lobby . . . the recptionist called the powers that be.
"PAY NO ATTENTION to the man behind the curtain" (lightning thunder :lol: )
The gal came out with me ... unlocked the unit (yes - it's locked) handed me the plug, and let me figure out the hookup. I should have actually made a quick youtube video besides pic's.

Regarding charger timer? Oh! . . . I didn't think about that, but yes, I had my timer set and the QC simply over rode it. The little green light still comes on in your leaf, but apparently the QC ran, despite the fact that our timer was set. One thing I wasn't certain of was whether the battery display (see picture) is based on what the QC thinks is the smaller imiev pack, when it determines state of charge/discharge.

But yes, DO go to the lobby - and don't just presume there's an auto right to just hook up. It's simply good protocol.
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drees said:

. . . . . .snip . . . . . . One can see from hill's photo that he charged 6.5 kWh in 8 minutes which would indicate a average charge rate of close to 50 kW. But the current power level on the charger is only 22 kW (395V * 55A) so the rate has quickly dropped already around 75% full.

Click to expand...

I'm not certain about the readout, but the picture looks like a 8.5kWh readout ... with (what I thought was) 8 minutes to 'full' ? ... but I don't know if it counts full as 80% or 100% ... or if the unit thinks of SOC in terms of the smaller Mitsu traction pack. I could tell that my host was as unfamiliar w/ it as I was.
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hill said:

drees said:

. . . . . .snip . . . . . . One can see from hill's photo that he charged 6.5 kWh in 8 minutes which would indicate a average charge rate of close to 50 kW. But the current power level on the charger is only 22 kW (395V * 55A) so the rate has quickly dropped already around 75% full.

Click to expand...

I'm not certain about the readout, but the picture looks like a 8.5kWh readout ... with (what I thought was) 8 minutes to 'full' ? ... but I don't know if it counts full as 80% or 100% ... or if the unit thinks of SOC in terms of the smaller Mitsu traction pack.

Click to expand...

Doh, you're right - that says 8m 1s remaining, not the elapsed time. ChaDeMO protocol includes communications which relays the SOC from the car to the charger. It certainly looks like the approximate SOC in your pic is around 75% - with a displayed charge rate of 22 kW (approximately 1C) if the charge rate remained the same it would take ~5 minutes to 80% and ~25 minutes to get to 100% - so the 8 minutes remaining that is displayed must be the estimated time to get to 80% which sounds about right as I would expect the charge rate to continue dropping as the SOC climbs. I estimate that by 80% full the charge rate will have dropped to appx 10 kW, probably slightly less.

I hear the current "keeper of the key" is not the regular person. Is that true?

TRONZ said:

I hear the current "keeper of the key" is not the regular person. Is that true?

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I don't think that's clear yet.

Washington State has contracted with AV for some QC stations along two highways.

(I don't imagine that I'm the first to link to this, but at least I didn't start a new thread )

http://green.autoblog.com/2011/07/21/aerovironment-to-charge-up-washingtons-electric-highways/

California, Watts Up???

Boomer23 said:

Washington State has contracted with AV for some QC stations along two highways...California, Watts Up???

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Well, for one thing, California would need a lot more than nine QC stations to cover the I-5...

davewill said:

Boomer23 said:

Washington State has contracted with AV for some QC stations along two highways...California, Watts Up???

Click to expand...

Well, for one thing, California would need a lot more than nine QC stations to cover the I-5...

Click to expand...

It sure would. But we'd settle for the same number of charging stations, as a start, right?

Boomer23 said:

davewill said:

Boomer23 said:

Washington State has contracted with AV for some QC stations along two highways...California, Watts Up???

Click to expand...

Well, for one thing, California would need a lot more than nine QC stations to cover the I-5...

Click to expand...

It sure would. But we'd settle for the same number of charging stations, as a start, right?

Click to expand...

Even 3 placed strategically in the Bay Area, Los Angeles and San Diego County would go a long ways...

Phil and I were by the Mitsubishi HQ this afternoon and they couldn't have been more welcoming and accommodating. Phil is going to do a proper write-up. But for now you can get a taste on the Mitsubishi i FB page:

http://www.facebook.com/iMitsubishi

I was there at Mitsubishi at 7:55, and there was no receptionist.
Apparently they run on slightly-delayed time, but I asked nicely
at the security office about 8:05 and they did not know seem to
know what to do or who to contact. A bit later the security guy
came out to pick up the delivered newspapers (on the ground)
and he said that they were working on it. A bit later Thomas,
who remembered me from a "e-fair" in San Diego a year ago,
came out, unlocked the QC, and plugged it into my eager car.

At this point, they come out and unlock (nnd then re-lock) for each
individual charge request. Asking the Receptionist (nicely, "May I
use the Quick-Charger, Please") is the proper way to start.

At about 60% (after 30 miles), it charged at 80 amps, but said
the time to "finished" was about 45 minutes. After about 20
minutes, the bar-graph looked like 96%, but the SOC-Meter said
87%, and it was down to 15 amps, and about 20 minutes remaining.

At that point a nice lady showed up with the MiEV flyers that I had
requested (said I would be happy to hand out whenever somebody asked
me about EVs), and the key. I decided to stop charging, and pushed the
STOP button, to get on with my trip to LAX.

I told at least 6 people while I was there waht a great thing they have done,
and how I wanted to help all EVs be a success. It seemed to be appreciated.

then ... another 30 miles to LAX, and about 50% charge, but found 7 LEAFs
in Parking Lot #1. Two were plugged in, but one was apparently done charging.
So, I disconected him, tossed the e-hose over the low wall, and started charging
from the parking space there.

I hit the Timer Override button, but when I got back, the car was no longer charging
and at about 83% ... which was enough to get me the 60 miles back to home.
Since my visitors were slow getting through Immigration, my LEAF had about 2.5 to 3
hours to charge.

Without the Mitsubishi QC, the trip would have required several more hours of
charging, so the QC GREATLY facilitated this 120-mile trip. Had I been unable
to get sufficient charge at LAX, I would have needed additional charging on the
way home (another stop at Mitsubishi, for a 10 or 15 minute e-fueling).

THANKS MITSUBISHI for thinking of the FUTURE.

garygid said:

A bit later Thomas, who remembered me from a "e-fair" in San Diego a year ago, came out, unlocked the QC, and plugged it into my eager car.

Click to expand...

That would have been the Tom who used to work at Nissan? We ran into him today too. Nice guy! All those guys over there are just great!

Anyone know how to add a charging station to the nav WITHOUT having to visit it? I wanted to add the Mitsu QC but can't figure out a way to do so...

mwalsh said:

Phil and I were by the Mitsubishi HQ this afternoon and they couldn't have been more welcoming and accommodating. Phil is going to do a proper write-up. But for now you can get a taste on the Mitsubishi i FB page:

http://www.facebook.com/iMitsubishi

Click to expand...

Mwalsh had the great idea of having the two of us coordinate our visit this afternoon to try to inconvenience the nice Mitsubishi people as little as possible. We got there about 2 pm. We parked in visitor parking near the solar canopy, but not underneath it, and went into the main lobby. We asked the receptionist if we could please use the Quick Charger.

She called the key master, Ida, and we also asked her to let Moe Durand, Manager of Product Communications, know that we were here. Moe and Ida walked us out to the Quick Charger, and Moe stayed with us for most of our visit, chatting about our cars, about charging and about their coming introduction of the Mitsubishi i.

The whole experience was very friendly and pleasant. At one point, one of Mitsubishi's web masters, I think his name was Ryan, joined us and took pictures for their Facebook page (link above in mwalsh's post). While mwalsh was charging, I gave Ryan a drive in my LEAF. He was impressed with the torque and feature level of the LEAF.

Here are some numbers. I arrived with 6 bars and 57% charge as shown on the garygid et al prototype SOC meter. After 23 minutes of quick charging, I had an indicated 90% of charge and 11 bars, after 8.1 kWh of charging as shown on the Eaton Quick Charger display. Mwalsh mentioned (I wasn't aware of this) that since I started charging with more than 50% charge, that the charger would run until I was 100% charged, but that since his LEAF was starting with under 50% charge, that the charger would stop at 80% and need to be re-started if he wanted to go above that percentage.

For my LEAF, we stopped the charger when the bar graph on the Eaton charger seemed to be approaching 90% or so (actually, it looked like more than 90% on the bar graph). Moe mentioned that the charge would slow down as it got over 90%. Note that the charging Amps had dropped from 95 to 20 at this point, slowing down as we approached 100% charge. I checked the prototype SOC meter and it showed 90%.

Here are pictures of the charging process. I may have some of the pictures relating to pressing buttons on the charger out of sequence with the other steps.










Seating the plug requires pushing it in fully and compressing the accordion pleats of the rubber shroud a bit, then squeezing the lower handle into place. I had a bit of trouble and tried three times, finally succeeding with a bit of a crunch. Mwalsh had much better success on his first try.












Note the 95 charging Amps!


The red pilot lamp is lit!


I started with 57% SOC. This shot taken a minute or two after charging began.




Note that charging Amps have dropped to 20. We disconnected at this time.







Here is the Level 2 EVSE. It is unlocked and can be used at any time that it isn't being used by Mitsubishi cars, as long as visitors abide by posted parking rules. The J plug looks tiny now, doesn't it?