[hvacman]

In Redding CA -

Redding 50 kW CCS

This is the first charge station completed and made operational in the California Energy Commission Project GFO-15-601 DC Fast Chargers for California's North-South Corridors.

Before this one went online, all CCS charge stations along I-5 north of Sacramento were 24 kW stations installed as part of the BMW program.

New 50 kW stations through this program and other CEC programs already under construction will be in about in Yreka, Mt. Shasta, Dunsmuir, Lakehead, Anderson, Red Bluff, Dunnigan, along with I-5 south of Sac in Stockton, Buttonwillow, and other towns.

Also under construction are stations along 101 from Santa Rosa to the Oregon border, along I-10 from LA to Las Vegas, US 50.

All stations are future-proofed with conduit and infrastructure to support additional and higher kW stations in the future.

This doesn't include any of the VW chargers, or private plans. The CCS march is on!

 

[DonC]

Great news though 50 kW seems such low power. How fast we can be spoiled!

I love the cost per kW too. High enough to deter those having access to home charging but still less than gas for most vehicles.

 

[Ziv]

50 kW charge rates are ok, but a half hour pit stop would only get you 25 kWh in a perfect world, so maybe 85-90 additional miles of AER at highway speed. I think any new CCS fast charger is a good thing, but 75 kW charge rates are about the minimum needed for a relatively comfortable road trip. A half hour on a 75 would get you almost 37 kWh if your pack doesn't start to taper. That would get you around 130 miles of AER or almost 2 more hours of driving.
I think 75 kW chargers are the minimum we need to convince a substantial portion of the car driving public that road tripping a BEV is not a huge inconvenience. Every step up in speed we see, be it 100 kW or 150 kW, means that the time needed to charge gets closer and closer to that of a gas pump for an ICE, and every one of those steps up in charge speed increases the size of the public that will accept BEVs as their main vehicle.
We are in the beginning of a very interesting sea change in how people view cars and how to fuel them. We have a few more years of people thinking that BEVs are a rare bird, but by 2020 both the BEV choices and the chargers will make what we have today look sick.

 

[hvacman]

Points well-taken. My comments:

I-5 has been a CCS desert to-date from the Oregon border to LA. There just isn't much charging structure there other than the 24 kW CCS equipment between Sacramento and Yreka that BMW paid to have installed - mostly at Carls Jr.'s. It was a slow slog of frequent re-charging stops for those driving this section. Note that the drive from Redding to the Oregon border involves the most mountainous sections and highest points of I-5 between Mexico and Canada, which burns up the kWh even faster. I don't think we'll see any EV owners complaining about the rating of the new chargers for the next couple of years. They'll mostly just want the danged things to work reliably at their full rating and not be ICE'd, from what I see on Plugshare comments.
- when the bid specs for this project went out to bid in 2015, there were NO CCS-compatible EV's that even could charge at a 50 kW rate. The BMW i3 is rated at about 25 kW, which is why the stations they financed were only rated at that level.
- the specs required the installations to have a conduit stubout at an expansion parking slot ready for conductors/equipment to upgrade to a 125 kW charging station.
- The Bolt EV has been tested on some higher-kW CCS chargers and have been demonstrated to peak at 55 kW. It could not take advantage of 75 kW. There are limits to what a 60 kWh battery can take. Even the base Model 3 will not be able to charge at 75 kW at a Supercharger. It probably will be limited to 60 kW max. High kW charge rates not only require the charge stations to deliver it, but also breakthroughs in battery technology to allow smaller batteries to take higher charge rates, and with less taper as the battery fills. The high charge rates at the SC stations only apply to the Tesla's with the bigger batteries, and even then the charge rates really taper off as the battery gets above 50% charged. The 60 kWh versions of the Model S charge at about the same speed as the Bolt.
- So far, the Bolt and the Model S/Model X are the ONLY mass-market EVs out there that can fully use 50 kW CCS/Chademo ports. The new Leaf will be able to use it and the Model 3, with an SC/Chademo adapter, will also be able to use it.
-
- These stations are just the start - the "seeds" planted by the CEC. By 2020, not only will their ratings be inadequate, but the demand for charge ports will also be an order of magnitude higher. Chargepoint/EVgo and others will have to substantially expand these stations and add many more, not only on the interstates, but the regional east-west state highways connecting the coast and Nevada to the interior.

 

[hvacman]

Points well-taken. My comments:

I-5 has been a CCS desert to-date from the Oregon border to LA. There just isn't much charging structure there other than the 24 kW CCS equipment between Sacramento and Yreka that BMW paid to have installed - mostly at Carls Jr.'s. It was a slow slog of frequent re-charging stops for those driving this section. Note that the drive from Redding to the Oregon border involves the most mountainous sections and highest points of I-5 between Mexico and Canada, which burns up the kWh even faster. I don't think we'll see any EV owners complaining about the rating of the new chargers for the next couple of years. They'll mostly just want the danged things to work reliably at their full rating and not be ICE'd, from what I see on Plugshare comments.
- when the bid specs for this project went out to bid in 2015, there were NO CCS-compatible EV's that even could charge at a 50 kW rate. The BMW i3 is rated at about 25 kW, which is why the stations they financed were only rated at that level.
- the specs required the installations to have a conduit stubout at an expansion parking slot ready for conductors/equipment to upgrade to a 125 kW charging station.
- The Bolt EV has been tested on some higher-kW CCS chargers and have been demonstrated to peak at 55 kW. It could not take advantage of 75 kW. There are limits to what a 60 kWh battery can take. Even the base Model 3 will not be able to charge at 75 kW at a Supercharger. It probably will be limited to 60 kW max. High kW charge rates not only require the charge stations to deliver it, but also breakthroughs in battery technology to allow smaller batteries to take higher charge rates, and with less taper as the battery fills. The high charge rates at the SC stations only apply to the Tesla's with the bigger batteries, and even then the charge rates really taper off as the battery gets above 50% charged. The 60 kWh versions of the Model S charge at about the same speed as the Bolt.
- So far, the Bolt and the Model S/Model X are the ONLY mass-market EVs out there that can fully use 50 kW CCS/Chademo ports. The new Leaf will be able to use it and the Model 3, with an SC/Chademo adapter, will also be able to use it.
-
- These stations are just the start - the "seeds" planted by the CEC. By 2020, not only will their ratings be inadequate, but the demand for charge ports will also be an order of magnitude higher. Chargepoint/EVgo and others will have to substantially expand these stations and add many more, not only on the interstates, but the regional east-west state highways connecting the coast and Nevada to the interior.

 

[Flux Capacitor]

Glad to see there's progress being made on the higher level chargers. Just out of curiosity I checked out the plugshare listing and I'm wondering how folks are supposed to know this is a 50Kw instead of 24? I didn't see anything that distinguishes it. Ideas?