Colorado Electric Vehicle Fast-Charging Corridors

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From my viewpoint here in Colorado the bottom is EV Connect and Blink. EA is extremely unreliable often the CHAdeMO is down sometimes whole sites are down still it is better than the games I played with EV Connect. EvGO is way more reliable than EA but has some old wonky stations out there. Chargepoint is the best in my experience in terms of always working in my experience. Most Chargepoints are newer though EA has new stations that their one CHAdeMO is down a lot. On Ouray while I have been there I have not been there since it became Chargepoint, it is possible they are figuring out things for example demand charges can be a pain on some utilities, could be a lemon station too I suppose.
 
Cool thread! Thanks.
I'm planning a trip to Ouray, Telluride, Durango, etc. in September 2022. Got a '22 Leaf SV+, 216 mile range, 185 highway range.

I could either take a Leaf, or another choice is a '22 Maverick Hybrid pickup (not a plug-in), gets 45 MPG in the hills, and 35 MPG if very little hills at high speed like I-70 flat parts,;...... you know how hybrids are, they want lots of up/down hills, not too high speeds, and/or city driving to get over 40 MPG in this one, over 50 MPG if it was a Prius.

I previous thought I had to take the Maverick, now I'm thinking there are so many EV charging stations sprinkled about that maybe I could take the Leaf. Chademo, fast enough for me. If it turns out there is a line of electric cars trying to get some juice, it could be a disaster. Or, they don't work. Seems risky, but maybe(?) doable.
 
voltamps said:
Cool thread! Thanks.
I'm planning a trip to Ouray, Telluride, Durango, etc. in September 2022. Got a '22 Leaf SV+, 216 mile range, 185 highway range.

I would take the LEAF, but that's me.

Networks are mostly Chargepoint, with range from free to $0.75 per kWh, and range from very reliable and well maintained and broken/kinda working. Check Plugshare and the Chargepoint app when planning charging. Some EA, some others. EA isn't the best for Chademo, as only one per location. (and VA says, just before you go as well)

Do check out the area around the planned chargers for things like bathrooms, food and such. Extras vary from none to fairly good selection. An almost fully closed mall with chargers being almost the only thing left was the worst I've seen. No bathrooms. No food. Sometimes worth stopping early to get better amenities.

Hotels with charging make a trip nicer.
 
WetEV said:
Hotels with charging make a trip nicer.
True that, and I'm looking forward to having a pick of rooms since ski season hasn't started yet. And empty chargers at night.
Festivals seem to be out of season too. Gotta hit another one some day. Did the Jazz Aspen Snowmass 3 years ago.

I'm going to think green here. https://evtool.ucsusa.org/ is a good tool to estimate what MPG you would have to get in a gasoline vehicle to equal the carbon footprint of a '22 Leaf SV+, and the answer is 55 MPG. Due to Colorado's high use of coal plants. (East and west coasts get cleaner electricity, putting it at well over 80 MPG.)

I think I can get 43 MPG in the Maverick Hybrid on the trip, so I calculate I would burn an extra 4 gallons of gasoline on the 800 mile trip over the Leaf's "equivalent" MPG of 55.
Summary: Leaf SV+ would burn 15 gallons of gasoline-equivalent,
and Maverick Hybrid burns 19 gallons of gasoline on the trip.
 
voltamps said:
Cool thread! Thanks.
I'm planning a trip to Ouray, Telluride, Durango, etc. in September 2022. Got a '22 Leaf SV+, 216 mile range, 185 highway range.

I could either take a Leaf, or another choice is a '22 Maverick Hybrid pickup (not a plug-in), gets 45 MPG in the hills, and 35 MPG if very little hills at high speed like I-70 flat parts,;...... you know how hybrids are, they want lots of up/down hills, not too high speeds, and/or city driving to get over 40 MPG in this one, over 50 MPG if it was a Prius.

I previous thought I had to take the Maverick, now I'm thinking there are so many EV charging stations sprinkled about that maybe I could take the Leaf. Chademo, fast enough for me. If it turns out there is a line of electric cars trying to get some juice, it could be a disaster. Or, they don't work. Seems risky, but maybe(?) doable.
If you don't mind using Level 2 public charge stations as a backup, in case DCFC stations are down or full, you should be ok, since there are lots of them on the Western Slope.

I use campgrounds for overnight stops because they usually have RV pedestals for charging. Most Colorado State Park campgrounds have RV pedestals. You would need a 14-50 adapter for your portable EVSE for campsites with "50 amp" service and a TT-30 adapter for campsites with "30 amp" service. TT-30 is pretty slow — 120 V and 24 A, for 2.88 kW (twice as fast as a standard NEMA 5-15 wall outlet) — but it can give a useful amount of charge overnight. A 240 V 14-50 outlet can usually fill a battery overnight, depending on the car's charge rate. This assumes that you can set the current in your LEAF and have an appropriate charge cable, something I wouldn't know.

^ A typical RV pedestal at a campground: NEMA 14-50 on the left, TT-30 in the middle and NEMA 5-20 on the right. This is at McPhee campground, between Dolores and Cortez.

^ A "30 amp" only RV pedestal, with TT-30 and NEMA 5-20. This is at Ridgway State Park (tiny Ridgway has good Level 2 free public charging in town.)
 
If we ever start thinking there aren't enough EV chargers, or they are unreliable, or get ICE-blocked, or you have to wait, or cost too much, we need to stop whining and remember Horatio.
I think at one point, in the Ken Burns documentary about his trip in 1903, he almost had to hold-up a General Store in the middle of nowhere to get the store owner to sell him some chemical joules (aka, gasoline) for a reasonable price. https://www.pbs.org/kenburns/horatios-drive/ Amazing how he made it.
 
voltamps said:
Cool thread! Thanks.
I'm planning a trip to Ouray, Telluride, Durango, etc. in September 2022. Got a '22 Leaf SV+, 216 mile range, 185 highway range.

I have done this very trip in a 2019 SV+ even before the Durango fast charger was online. I camped outside of Durango and used an RV plug to be full every day. I rode the train in Durango and used l2 there. In Telluride when I spent a day around there I parked in the gondola garage at an l2 charger. I was mildly bummed that the l2 at the Ouray hot spring pool was down but I really didn't need it, now it is a (expensive) fast charger if you need it. I liked the Box canyon falls there. I have been back through Durango and used the fast charger. Really it is not so bad the chargepionts are very reliable in my experience driving my plus. The old days of adventure driving as I believe my wife called it are not much of a thing these days within Colorado. EA is where I find CHAdeMO is down more than I like. You'll be fine.

Also Great Sand Dunes is easier to do these days, Dinosaur is fine, Black Canyon is fine most tourist spots inside Colorado are reachable by a Plus. I am coming from South Denver Metro.

Regarding Horacio tourist areas are not like that in Colorado, some trips to the north are though. It used to be much more umm adventurous even 5 years ago also remember cars have been getting more range in addition to gradually improving charge infrastructure.
 
dgpcolorado said:
^ A "30 amp" only RV pedestal, with TT-30 and NEMA 5-20. This is at Ridgway State Park (tiny Ridgway has good Level 2 free public charging in town.)

I understand there is now a L2 at Ridgway state park as well though I have not used it, I camped there exactly as you did. I have also used that l2 in the town's park.
 
I charged at one of the above with my Vectrix a few years ago. I had to use the GFCI 5-20, though, even though I had a TT-30 adapter, as the TT-30 was not working.
 
salyavin said:
voltamps said:
Cool thread! Thanks.
I'm planning a trip to Ouray, Telluride, Durango, etc. in September 2022. Got a '22 Leaf SV+, 216 mile range, 185 highway range.

I have done this very trip in a 2019 SV+ even before the Durango fast charger was online. I camped outside of Durango and used an RV plug to be full every day. I rode the train in Durango and used l2 there. In Telluride when I spent a day around there I parked in the gondola garage at an l2 charger. I was mildly bummed that the l2 at the Ouray hot spring pool was down but I really didn't need it, now it is a (expensive) fast charger if you need it. I liked the Box canyon falls there. I have been back through Durango and used the fast charger. Really it is not so bad the chargepionts are very reliable in my experience driving my plus. The old days of adventure driving as I believe my wife called it are not much of a thing these days within Colorado. EA is where I find CHAdeMO is down more than I like. You'll be fine.

Also Great Sand Dunes is easier to do these days, Dinosaur is fine, Black Canyon is fine most tourist spots inside Colorado are reachable by a Plus. I am coming from South Denver Metro.

Regarding Horatio, tourist areas are not like that in Colorado, some trips to the north are though. It used to be much more umm adventurous even 5 years ago also remember cars have been getting more range in addition to gradually improving charge infrastructure.

About the Dinosaur National Monument area you mentioned, I was up there 4 years ago and the fed park employees had an FFE (Ford Focus Electric) as a company car, same as the one I owned back then. They loved it. We talked about how well it handled (sports car really), and they said they were going to try to fit a trailer hitch to it for a small 1,000 lb capacity utility trailer on their paved roads there.

South metro Denver here too.
One day I'll take a long trip in the Leaf, when I need to carry less gear maybe. I skipped the 'almost-Horatio' ;) type experience for now. When Colorado finally gets a bunch of SMR nukes for electricity, instead of the dirty electrons we have now, I'll have no excuse to leave the Leaf at home for the long trips.

Before the Ouray-Telluride-GlenwoodSprings trip I just took (never got to Durango), I posted this:
"I think I can get 43 MPG in the Maverick Hybrid on the trip, so I calculate I would burn an extra 4 gallons of gasoline on the 800 mile trip over the Leaf's "equivalent" MPG of 55.
Summary: Leaf SV+ would burn 15 gallons of gasoline-equivalent,
and Maverick Hybrid burns 19 gallons of gasoline on the trip.
"

I actually got 44 MPG in the Maverick Hybrid, so it was a little better than the 43 MPG guess, at least a bit closer to what the Leaf SV+ (55 MPG) would get in MPG-equivalent, in our dirty-electricity Colorado. 787 miles on the trip.

One difference between running a Leaf SV+ (62 kWH) vs. Maverick Hybrid (1.1 kWH tiny), is that going down mountains the Leaf will soak up most of all that "weight*height" potential energy, where the Maverick filled it's 1.1 kWH battery up fast and had to resort to old fashioned engine braking with brake pads added in to keep speeds from climbing into crazy high amounts. Later they might come up with a 14.4 kWH PHEV Maverick (like the Escape it's based on), meaning regen is more meaningful in the mountains.

The Maverick Hybrid with a tonneau bed cover carried all our gear & luggage nicely. The Leaf would have needed a ski rack on top with a Thule on the roof, probably cutting it's range even further (guessing 185 highway miles down to 170 with a Thule on top, aero drag, weight).
 
voltamps said:
Later they might come up with a 14.4 kWH PHEV Maverick (like the Escape it's based on), meaning regen is more meaningful in the mountains.
That would be real progress in the truck market.

I would probably want 30 kWh with an ICE, or 60 kWh straight EV. I wonder which is cheaper to build. As a past owner of a PHEV, I do not want to go back to daily driving where the ICE comes on daily. That is a lousy ownership experience. The irony of PHEV ownership is that the shorter the ICE-on interval, the more annoying.
 
I love charging my Rav4 Prime on the long down-hills in CO. It has a 14kWh battery so no problem with over-filling it and after 5 years of driving a 30kWh Leaf it's easy to make sure I always have plenty of room for those electrons.
 
EV Fast-Charging Corridors

September 2022 Update

Developed in partnership with ChargePoint and site hosts, such as local governments, utilities and private companies, the Colorado Energy Office (CEO) fast-charging electric vehicle corridors project comprises high-speed charging stations to be installed at 34 locations across the state.

Sites Open Now

Dinosaur Welcome Center: 101 Stegosaurus Fwy, Dinosaur, CO 81610
Craig Kum & Go: 700 E. Victory Way, Craig, CO 81625
Steamboat Springs Kum & Go: 80 Anglers Drive, Steamboat Springs, CO 80477
Granby Kum & Go: 308 W. Agate Avenue, Granby, CO 80446
Estes Park Visitor Center: 500 Big Thompson Ave, Estes Park, CO 80517
Pagosa Springs Centennial Park: San Juan River Walk, Pagosa Springs, CO 81147
Montrose City Parking Lot: 533 N. 1st Street, Montrose, CO 81401
Rifle Kum & Go: 705 Taugenbaugh Blvd, Rifle, CO 81650
Vail Lionshead Parking: 395 S Frontage Rd W, Vail, CO 81657
Fairplay Town Hall: 901 9th St, Fairplay, CO 80440
Salida Two Rivers Development: 1 Old Stage Rd., Salida, CO, 81201
Purgatory Ski Resort: 1 Skier Pl, Durango, CO 81301
Durango City Parking: 250 W 8th St, Durango, CO 81301
Alamosa Visitor Center: 610 State Ave, Alamosa, CO 81101
Wellington Kum & Go: 8150 6th St, Wellington, CO 80549
La Junta Village Inn: 5 Walmart Way, La Junta, CO 81050
Wheat Ridge Target: 5071 Kipling Street, Wheat Ridge, CO 80033
Conifer: 27181 Main Street, Conifer, CO
Brighton: 15200 E 120TH Ave., Commerce City, CO
Boulder: 1500 Pearl St., Boulder, CO
Pueblo: 3522 N Elizabeth St, Pueblo, CO
Georgetown: 1120 Argentine St., Georgetown, CO
Limon: 250 E Main St, Limon, CO 80828
Westminster: 7382 Federal Blvd, Westminster, CO 80030
Ouray: 1230 Main Street, Ouray, CO 81427
Greeley: 4318 Centerplace Dr, Greeley, CO 80631


Sites Opening this Summer

Canon City: 403 Royal Gorge Blvd, Canon City, CO 81212
Dacono: 127 Laura Way, Dacono, CO 80514

https://energyoffice.colorado.gov/zero-emission-vehicles/ev-fast-charging-corridors
 
The Chargepoint DCFC stalls in Ouray have been updated with new 200kW units, now active:



Pricing is $1.99 session fee plus 48¢/kWh, no parking fee for first 30 minutes, $15/hour after that.


Edit: Plugshare reports that upgraded DCFC units in Montrose are also now active. I presume that Chargepoint is doing this across the state.
 
dgpcolorado said:
The Chargepoint DCFC stalls in Ouray have been updated with new 200kW units, now active:
I see that they do say ChargePoint, but the "Hion" branding is much more prominent. Which is not something I can recall seeing with ChargePoint before.
 
The Ouray Chargepoint DCFC station has two more 200 kW chargers being added, for a total of four. When they originally built it they put in pedestals and conduit for four units and now the two extras are being used.

Not sure why. The pricing is so high they don't get used much, although it really is a good location for those passing through on road trips. The drive from Ridgway to Ouray, then over Red Mountain Pass (11,018 feet) to Silverton, is highly scenic and fun to drive.
 
dgpcolorado said:
The Ouray Chargepoint DCFC station has two more 200 kW chargers being added, for a total of four. When they originally built it they put in pedestals and conduit for four units and now the two extras are being used.

Do you happen to know the max voltage of these chargers ? I find it reassuring that the infrastructure was future proofed (to a degree.) That at least explains in part the outrageous prices the Gov is paying for these mini installations.

My search came up empty, but I found that Hion is a distributor of these Enel DC chargers. Enel is an Italian company that not too long ago bought the company that makes the JuiceBox home L2 EVSE. I've read that the JuiceBox App is now going through upgrade pains. That sounds like the key App developers at eMotorWerks did not sign on to Enel.

Ahh ... Here we go
https://evcharging.enelx.com/images/media-kit/JuicePump_100-200_kW_Data_sheet_022022.pdf

Up to 950V, 200 A output. Porsches will be happy, the yahoos get 75 kW
 
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