Where are all the public stations in Los Angeles?

[garygid]

sociall...,
Was that a NEMA 14-50 receptacle (socket), not 15-40?

 

[TomT]

Actually, that turns out to not be true. I was down there at the Mark Taper yesterday (Saturday) with the Leaf for a play (we have season tickets to the Taper and Ahmanson) and walked across the street to check it out after not being able to get in at all. The place was locked up tight and there was no entry anywhere for anyone who was not a DWP employee with a key card. I finally found someone inside who indicated to me that the chargers were only available during normal business hours when a guard was on duty at the NE entrance off of Hill street to let someone in. (The chargers are on the north interior wall of the building.) After hours and on weekends, there is no guard and no access. (They used to offer for-fee parking in their lot for The Music Center and open access during the weekends, but that went away years ago because of "security concerns...") Also, they are doing remodeling there and it is posted that there is no parking at the chargers from 5pm to 1am regardless.

Since the place was completely vacant, I was able to take a close look at the chargers and area. They are all the old inductive style (probably for what is left of LADWP's RAVs). About 1/3 of them were broken or otherwise out of service for technical reasons. I looked everywhere around the charger area and I only found one accessible 240 plug and one 120 plug. So, for us Leafers, it is of extremely limited value. However, there is a large sign that touts that this is the "First Electrical Vehicle Charging Station in Los Angeles..."

I took some pictures and will post them later.

I made a visit to the LA DWP headquarters in downtown LA on Hope St. to check out their EVSEs and to ask at the parking kiosk about accessibility of the EVSEs to the public. Here is what I found: Talking to the parking attendant, he said that anyone could come in to use the EVSEs. You just need to show ID and he will let you in. He said the parking structure there is open 24/7 and EV parking to charge is free So sounds like great news! Except that all the L2 EVSEs are legacy small paddle units. I could not see any that had J connectors. All the 10 or so spaces lined up with EVSEs on the wall were ICE'd....every single one. There was one unit that when I flipped open the cover had a 120 and a NEMA 15-40 receptacle. There was an electric motorcycle plugged into the 120 receptacle. Here are pictures http://flic.kr/ps/WABJY
I tried to contact someone at DWP to ask about these EVSEs and when they would be retrofitted with the J connector but no luck. So maybe there is a forum member who knows someone at the headquarters who can push this issue with them. Seems pretty unbelievable that they don't have these updated yet. I understand not all of them should be updated because there are EVs that need the small paddle.
LADWP headquarters is right across from the Music Center downtown.

 

[BetaMark]

I know that we've got a huge ecotality test market in Los Angeles, there are a number of leaf's on the road here and in general, we have an EV friendly city.

My question is Where are all the public charging stations? The only ones that my car shows are at local Nissan dealers.

Not having been the recipient of the ecotality largess I question why the subsidy went to install chargers in people's homes instead of building out the infrastructure for the general public to use...

Agreed. To paraphrase a line from Jerry Maguire, "Show me the infrastructure!" :mrgreen:

 

[TRONZ]

I agree. It would seem that Ecotality is more interested in banking our taxpayer money than spending it on what they are supposed to be doing. How does someone look up the government contract they signed? I would be very interested to see how they are complying with it's terms.

 

[BetaMark]

I agree. It would seem that Ecotality is more interested in banking our taxpayer money than spending it on what they are supposed to be doing. How does someone look up the government contract they signed? I would be very interested to see how they are complying with it's terms.

IIRC the EV Project started in October 2009 and is supposed to last about 3 years. So they've got roughly another 1 1/2 years to make good.

There's also this: http://www.engadget.com/2011/04/25/los-angeles-pilot-program-offers-up-to-2-000-off-ev-charging-st/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+weblogsinc%2Fengadget+%28Engadget%29

Notice the paragraph in the press release under 'Components of LADWP's EV strategy...'

"EV Infrastructure: LADWP will upgrade the 86 existing City of Los Angeles owned public chargers. LADWP plans to invest in additional new public chargers after existing ones are upgraded. LADWP will also encourage private owners of older style chargers to upgrade to the new standards."

I guess that's at least a start.

 

[KeiJidosha]

3 new Chargepoint L1 and L2 Coulombs now at the AQMD in Diamond Bar at 60, 57 junction.

 

[TangoKilo]

Only level 1 wallplugs at Santa Barbara parking lots #6 & 7 so far...

 

[JPVLeaf]

FYI, the chargers located under the solar charge port area on the upper parking area at the South Coast AQMD in Diamond Bar are temporarily unavailable. The upper parking structure deck is currently being resurfaced. Work began 8/8/11. The estimated date of completion is 9/16/11.

All the charging locations near the front entrance/lobby parking area, including the three ChargePoints, will remain available during this time.

http://carstations.com/1037