Phoenix metro-area

[phxsmiley]

Yes, the one-way, single lane alley is accessible from Scottsdale Rd, on the right side between Main and 1st, as you are driving North on Scottsdale Rd. I missed it the first time. Shop owners are very friendly folk and welcome the use of the EVSE.

I think it would be a great idea for us to record our experiences in the plugshare website. Then, this becomes a way to document this 'extra information', then point this website to new users. I've been adding information about nearby restaurants, wifi, shopping, as I use the stations.

Without many of the QC stations, it works for our family to plan a meal or shopping around our away-from-home charging sessions.

 

[Volusiano]

I browsed around the plugshare.com site and I like it a lot. It would be nice if newer locations on the Blink or Chargepoint maps get added automatically on Plugshare somehow. But I don't think that's going to happen. But if everybody adds to Plugshare whenever they come across a charge station they use to put more comments into it, then it should be valuable info the other places don't have.

 

[RickS]

I went by Bell Ford on Friday and was surprised to find the fast charger there, but of course not powered up yet. One of the sales men approached and asked if he could help me, I said I was just checking out the charger and he immediately was curious about the car. As mentioned it was interesting that a Ford dealer has a fast charger with a standard they are fighting. I'm not sure if this charger is going to be assessible 24hours or not, its by the service entrance.

The Camel back esplanade is located on the back side of the building inside the pay parking lot just west of the exit gates. Once you enter you make three lefts like you're leaving and the two chargers are right there. The big problem is that you'll pay $4-$5 to park here if you don't validate, but there is an AMC theater upstairs. This parking garage is the one closest to 24th St. An interesting thing these chargers have the new software which requires a zip code verification and when I used it Friday night it took about two minutes to verify and turn on. I wonder if the cell reception for the charger is weak inside the concrete lot.

I went looking for chargers at Glendale Community college main and drove around the parking lot twice looking for them. Granted this was the first day of classes so the lot was packed full, but they're not obvious. I heard they're in the north lot. Its two miles from my house so I'll go back and look during a more off time.

I also stopped by bookmans on northern this week during lunch just to check it out. The two chargers are left of the main entrance and not readily marked as ev only, but both spots were open. The right charger wouldn't read the rfid card, I called it in. The left charger works fine.

Another new one is the poorly named "Westwood fin legacy village"on 24th St and baseline. Its a big shopping center and the chargers are in front of the blockbuster video (thought they were all gone). The employees were happy to see me there and said I was the second to use them. The West charger has either a broken cord or control board because the car wont even acknowledge it was connected, the east charger works fine. I called this one in too.

 

[phxsmiley]

About the Blockbuster one at 24th St and Baseline, I was probably be the first to use them, about 2 weeks ago. Charged up for an hour or so.

I requested that Blink 'adjust' the address so that the map points to the Blockbuster. I had to drive around the whole shopping mall until I found it in front of the Blockbuster. I would bet the 'Westwood Fin' name refers to the owner of the shopping mall. I noticed there is another one on the Blink map on 340 E McDowell Rd.

I also added the location into Plugshare, and put a short list of a few of the shops in that area.

 

[RickS]

Hah, I was told I "took the left (East) chargers virginity" by the Blockbuster employees and that I was the second who used the chargers.

But yes I agree, the Blink app needs a notes section on the listings for more precise locations.

 

[turbo2ltr]

Checked out the west side charges off Bell in Surprise.

Blink site lists one charger, but there are two. I added some additional info to the plugshare listing.

 

[phxsmiley]

On the Blink map, I see that Sky Harbor Terminal 4 now has 2 Blink units. They probably changed out those old paddle stations. I requested this a couple times (by email), they must be listening!

If one of you have a chance to go to Terminal 4, please update here (and in http://www.plugshare.com) what floor these EVSEs are on. I don't have an airport trip coming up, and I recall that multiple floors had these old stations, I believe Level 4 and 6??

btw, to Blink's credit, I email them several suggestions about charging stations I visit and they have always responded pretty quickly.

 

[kovalb]

I have mixed feelings about charging stations at airports. Fortunately I can make a round trip to SkyHarbor no problem on a single charge. However for those who can't and will be gone for a week does that mean it's OK for them to tie up a charging station that long? I don't see any easy solution. Ideas?

 

[kovalb]

https://www.facebook.com/nissanleaf

FYI, Nissan is giving away an AV EVSE. Enter the sweepstake through their Facebook page.

 

[phxsmiley]

I have mixed feelings about charging stations at airports. Fortunately I can make a round trip to SkyHarbor no problem on a single charge. However for those who can't and will be gone for a week does that mean it's OK for them to tie up a charging station that long? I don't see any easy solution. Ideas?

My primary usage about them would be to pick someone up, drop someone off at the airport, which I'm usually doing before or after work, and I can use the (usually) 1 hour boost, and stay a little longer if I need more. It would have been handy around Christmastime.

But, I see your point about leaving the car for a week, sitting on the charger. I wonder if it would be possible to use the 'charging policy' cards and park another leaf in the adjacent spot? These were already dedicated EV spots. We should see how that might work when one of us checks how they retrofitted these spots.

 

[phxsmiley]

The 'Bell Ford' DC Fast Charger is operational today in the North valley, according to the Blink map.

With that, we can make a roundtrip to the north valley into Peoria/Glendale to visit family/friends, then back to Chandler. And it's close to the highway. This is really a pretty good location for us!

Also, Blink upgraded their map to display additional information, including the charging 'price', which implies that some EVSEs may remain 'free', perhaps if a store sponsors them, like Kohl's.

An interesting thing is that you can 'turn off' the display of the 'L2 chargers' and see just how many L3 chargers there are. In the US, you can see only 3 areas of the US have Blink L3 chargers.

 

[turbo2ltr]

gonna have to check it out.. Too bad I work right nearby...its on the wrong side of the valley for me.. Heh. Guess it will be good when I have to take the trips to the airport or into tempe, as a round trip will leave me with little for the rest of the day...

I'm still waiting for there to be some more chargers near the 10 south of the 60.. The only one is at the dealer and it's a far walk to Ikea...

 

[phxsmiley]

I emailed Ikea to ask about the status of their charger installation, and they just pointed me to the press release.

For the airport, you can try the new Blink chargers now installed in Terminal 4. Of course, you have to pay for parking to charge, but it's an 'opportunity' charge.

The L3 charger Downtown is a little off the highway, but it may be worth a try to help you get back to the North side. I wonder if it is open now on the weekends, we'll have to check that out.

 

[turbo2ltr]

Saw a silver leaf southbound on 19th ave, a block south of the 101 yesterday around 2 maybe.

I'm guessing it was the guy I previously mentioned that lives just south of deer valley airport. Last month I actually stopped to talk with the guy who happened to be outside working on his house when I passed by testing one of our hybrid telecom vans, but he seemed pretty disinterested in conversation so we didn't say much. I asked if he was on the forum and he said he "thinks so". Not really something you wouldn't be sure of..heh.

 

[kovalb]

The L3 charger Downtown is a little off the highway, but it may be worth a try to help you get back to the North side. I wonder if it is open now on the weekends, we'll have to check that out.

The DCQC is in ECOtality's visitor parking lot off of 3rd Ave. The gates are locked up during non-working hours, so no weekends.

I do wonder when they will be rolling out more DCQC stations? They originally said there would be 50 in each of the five launch markets, of which we are one. They had plans to establish an EV transportation corridor between Phoenix and Nogales with DCQC stations along I-10. I haven't heard anything recently though.

 

[RickS]

I went back to Bell Ford yesterday, the DC fast charger is still off. I was fooled by the map also, it made it look like it was on, but the 2 available that show are the level 2's right next to it.

For Sky Harbor, this location had large paddle inductive and Avcon's there before so I'm guessing it's the same spots. Unfortunately there wouldn't be any other reachable spots next to them. You'd also have to pay for short term parking during your whole vacation so it would be likely cost prohibitive to park there. There are also old chargers in terminal 2 garage so I'm wondering if those will be updated also.

 

[Volusiano]

It looks like Blink took off the Bell Ford L3 Blink indicator off their map.

 

[kovalb]

It looks like Blink took off the Bell Ford L3 Blink indicator off their map.

ECOtality said they were going to remove all private charging stations that were not open to the public. I wonder if Bell Ford's falls into that category? I hope not. It would be a good location to top off going to or from the Anthem Outlet Mall.

 

[Dino]

Arizona Considers Charging Electric Cars Tax At 1.43¢ Per Mile

http://www.greencarreports.com/news/1072614_arizona-considers-charging-electric-cars-tax-at-1-43-per-mile" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

at 99 mpge that’s equivalent to $1.40 a gallon! :shock:

 

[RickS]

Thanks for posting that, representatives emailed.