Ecotality rolling out roughly 200 QC chargers next month.

[ht2]

Found good news in negative tone NY times blog.

Ecotality, the E.V. infrastructure company, would begin next month rolling out roughly 200 fast-charge units across California, Oregon, Washington, Arizona, Texas, Tennessee and Washington, D.C.

Ecotality sees the successful deployment of fast-charge infrastructure as critical to the success of E.V.’s as a whole. “If lots of vehicles are out there and there’s no infrastructure, the vehicles will be tethered to the home and that’s going to create a very niche market for electric vehicles,” he said. “This is very much a planned deployment supporting the vehicles as they roll out, so people get used to being able to charge away from home and expand the utilization of their vehicles.”

http://wheels.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/09/22/ecotalitys-fast-charging-units-good-news-for-leaf-owners-and-for-now-nobody-else/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

 

[fooljoe]

The trick is that the Nissan E.V. is the only mass-produced plug-in vehicle on the North American market that can accept the charge, because it is the only plug-in vehicle that currently conforms to an esoteric standard called Chademo.

Maybe it's the only mass-produced plug-in vehicle that can accept the charge because it's the only mass-produced plug-in vehicle (no the Volt doesn't count.) Some trick.

 

[LEAFfan]

I'm not all surprised with this announcement. I've been telling all the doubters and impatient people that they would be installed by the end of 2011. Some may not have realized that home installations cease at the end of this month which will let them focus on the QCs.

 

[GeekEV]

I'll believe it when I see it. But if true, this will be awesome!

 

[davewill]

Note the key words "begin next month rolling out". That means that some number greater than zero will be installed next month... When I have a list of local locations and even approximate dates to match, I'll feel a lot better.

 

[ht2]

Another good news is in the other thread( L3 / CHAdeMO quick charge AWOL ?), Etec Level 3 (Quick charger) models are listed by UL now.

I believe the Etec Level 3 (Quick Charge) "UL Listing" certifications may have just occurred (at least for Models GP-208K1, GP-480K1, and GP-600K1):

http://database.ul.com/cgi-bin/XYV/template/LISEXT/1FRAME/showpage.html?name=FFTG.E175032&ccnshorttitle=Electric+Vehicle+Charging+System+Equipment&objid=1074087435&cfgid=1073741824&version=versionless&parent_id=1073986559&sequence=1" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

If so, this may mean their installations may begin any day now...

I think Etec is own by Ecotality.

 

[Stoaty]

Note the key words "begin next month rolling out".

Yup, they only have to install one in order for this statement to be true. :twisted:

 

[EVDRIVER]

More Ecotality marketing bunk, yes, they may install a couple. Let's see if they even do that. When all is done there will be like 1.2 in each of the SF counties, so one in SF, etc, etc. Big deal.

 

[evnow]

Seriously, the PR stuff is not good enough now for Ecotality. They have to deliver before we believe them.

 

[BnBinSD]

I just visited ECOtality's web site - http://www.theevproject.com/media.php" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; - and there's nothing there regarding any of this.

So where is this even confirmed? That blog doesn't contain any links either.

Like others here, I'm pretty skeptical about anything put out by ECOtality. I'll believe it when I see one here in San Diego county...

 

[perpetualstudent]

Building is one thing. But will they be functional and available? They have had a poor track record with both home and public L2 chargers. I can't think of any reason why the more complicated L3 will be any different.

 

[aleph5]

29 in Tennessee by end of the year:
http://www.tennessean.com/article/2...kle-into-TN?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|Business

Unfortunately only four of them, one in each of the four largest cities, will be public. Seems like they originally planned for entire stations of 4-6 fast chargers.

 

[TRONZ]

Ecotality has lost the trust of the EV community. The only way to undo this little problem is to actually deliver functioning public stations per the DOE contract. The public infrastructure ball has been in their court for over a year and they have been unable to hit it back. Counting how few stations they have delivered is not spin or speculation, it is math!

I for one hope they deliver these QC stations since their funding is up in about 100 days. Do I think they will do it? No.

 

[Packet]

Someone's apparently lit a fire under Ecotality's chair because, to my shock, they are actually getting public L2 chargers installed all over Seattle. Within the past few weeks they've started to spring up in supermarket lots, parking garages, etc. (Ecotality has the contract for Seattle, while for the surrounding cities -- Redmond, Bellevue, etc. -- ChargePoint does. Guess where all the chargers were until recently? Yeah... not Seattle.)

No quick chargers yet, though last I heard we were supposed to have QC installations along I-5 by the end of November. I guess we'll see.

Of course, the only broken charger I've yet encountered here was also a blink, sooooo...

 

[TRONZ]

Someone's apparently lit a fire under Ecotality's chair

That would be Father Time. 100 days until their DOE infrastructure funding runs out.

 

[LEAFfan]

Guess where all the chargers were until recently? Yeah... not Seattle.)

I'm not surprised because ChargePoint doesn't have to install the residential ones. Would you rather had Blink chargers installed all around your cities and not at your home until all the L2 and QCs had been installed everywhere else?

 

[Packet]

I'm not surprised because ChargePoint doesn't have to install the residential ones. Would you rather had Blink chargers installed all around your cities and not at your home until all the L2 and QCs had been installed everywhere else?

Actually, in all honesty and with full benefit of hindsight... yes. Since I picked up an orphaned car identical to my order to get my car two months early -- but did not change my installation appointment -- I charged on L1 for two months without hassle. In the meantime, all the promised public charging infrastructure was missing. Looking back, I would've rather seen public chargers out there (getting people talking about EVs, and also increasing range options for folks) -- especially the QC stations along I-5 -- than get my L2 charger at home.

I grant you that Coulomb didn't have the same residential obligations that Ecotality did and that probably helped their ability to do commercial rollout in a more timely fashion, but that doesn't change the fact that Ecotality apparently claimed they could do both (and presumably got their DOE infrastructure grant on the basis of those claims).

 

[LEAFfan]

I grant you that Coulomb didn't have the same residential obligations that Ecotality did and that probably helped their ability to do commercial rollout in a more timely fashion, but that doesn't change the fact that Ecotality apparently claimed they could do both (and presumably got their DOE infrastructure grant on the basis of those claims).

Ecotality IS doing both, just not at the speed you expect. They are living up to their contract. We just need to have a little more patience than has been shown.

 

[abasile]

Would you rather had Blink chargers installed all around your cities and not at your home until all the L2 and QCs had been installed everywhere else?

I was not eligible for a Blink anyway because of where I live, so my answer would definitely be "yes". However, I regularly drive to areas that are within the EV Project boundary, and would much appreciate more public charging opportunities when I'm there.

Besides, with a secondhand AV unit and installation done by a reasonable, local electrician, it didn't cost me too much to have L2 at home.

 

[Packet]

I grant you that Coulomb didn't have the same residential obligations that Ecotality did and that probably helped their ability to do commercial rollout in a more timely fashion, but that doesn't change the fact that Ecotality apparently claimed they could do both (and presumably got their DOE infrastructure grant on the basis of those claims).

Ecotality IS doing both, just not at the speed you expect. They are living up to their contract. We just need to have a little more patience than has been shown.

I might have misunderstood; I took your comment to say that blink has been working just as hard as Coulomb, but that Coulomb didn't have to deal with home installations.

I understand that blink's done a lot of work on the home installation side of things. But if they got the grants under the auspices of saying "we can do both these things before this deadline" and then they haven't achieved that as the deadline is drawing near, they might have bitten off more than they can chew.

The same thing is true of the company that's handling the 520 bridge tolling here in Seattle. Originally, the Department of Transportation solicited bids for someone having the system up and running by April of 2011. The winning bid claimed they could do it by November of 2010. Here we are in September 2011, and yet the 520 tolling still isn't up; we're being told the earliest that they'll be able to bring tolling online is December... possibly later. A huge embarrassment to the DOT, who paid a ton for ad campaigns in February and March of this year to remind everyone to get their Good2Go wireless tolling passes and put 'em in their car before April!

Does that mean the company is horrible? No. But it does mean they promised something they weren't feasibly able to deliver; the project has taken a lot longer than expected and thus has cost more than expected and taken a lot longer.

I'm not saying blink/Ecotality sucks; far from it. I'm just saying that they seem to have promised more than they can deliver, and as a result they seem to be sort of scrambling to make the deadlines imposed by the grant they won; their installation timeline (and in a few places, installation quality as well) has suffered as a result of trying to play catch-up.

And I think that's unfortunate, and -- in answer to your previous question -- if they couldn't realistically tackle both to full effect in the timeline laid out, I would've actually preferred the effort was expended on the commercial charger infrastructure (and especially the quick charge infrastructure along the freeway) than on the home chargers. That's all.