Goodlettsville Library adds ChargePoint Level 1 and Level 2 EV chargers

Posted on August 31, 2011 by jpwhitehome

Goodlettsville TN - Leading the Electric Vehicle deployment in Tennessee - click to enlarge

Goodlettsville is one of the first communities in Tennessee to install public access Electric Vehicle (EV) charging. The new library which opened in July 2011 was selected to receive two ChargePoint EV charging points. Each of the pedestals is capable of supplying either 110v or 220v to an electric vehicle. Level 1 charging can take 20 hours or more to charge an EV such as the Nissan LEAF from empty. The 220v Level 2 port however can do the same in 6-7 hours.This sounds like a long time, however most EV users frequently ‘top off’ their vehicles whenever presented with the opportunity, topping off typically takes anywhere from 30 minutes to a few hours. One reason to ‘top off’ like this is because many public charging stations such as the one at the Goodlettsville library are free to use, essentially giving the vehicle owner free motoring for a number of miles. Another reason is to ensure that enough range remains in the vehicle for unplanned trips throughout the day.

CharegPoint Charger - Click to Enlarge

The chargers are more compact looking than the Blink chargers installed at hotels and businesses in Nashville TN and are manufactured by ChargePoint. Currently there are only 4 ChargePoint chargers in Middle Tennessee. ChargePoint have installed hundreds of chargers already in California and other western states.

I did try and use the charger to charge my Nissan LEAF, unfortunately I wasn’t successful. I have ordered an RFID card which is required to activate the charger for use. The use of RFID cards is to ensure safety to the general public because electricity only flows through the charging ports after activation. So if your kids play with  charger, they will not come to any harm. It is also possible to activate a ChargePoint charging station if one installs a smart phone application, which identifies nearby chargers using GPS and allows you to activate either the 110v or 220 v charging ports. The phone application also allows you to ‘reserve’ a  charger for a planned visit.

Three EV parking spaces are available at the library - click to enlarge

I tried to turn the charger on using the app on my smart phone, but because I do not have an RFID card associated with my account yet, it would not work. I could not find a phone number on the charger to call for manual activation. This illustrates one barrier to adoption of Electric Vehicles. Safety is important, but we should not be making if difficult or impossible for a genuine user to charge their vehicle. I was not desperate for a charge, I went out of curiosity to see this brand charger for the first time. I will return once I have an RFID card to activate the unit to make sure I can make use of it if I am in need of a charge at another time in the future.

Fuel Efficient' Parking spaces - click to enlarge

The library has three Electric vehicle parking spaces dedicated for the purpose, they are opposite the front entrance and share the two chargers. Five additional spaces are reserved for Hybrid vehicles, such as the Toyota Prius, or other ‘low emission’ vehicles (not sure what the low emission category includes).

Why more spaces than chargers? Once a car is fully charged, another EV user can disconnect your vehicle and connect theirs. Many EV users employ the use of ‘protocol cards’ which they put on the dashboard of their vehicle. The card indicates the time after which it is OK to disconnect the vehicle should someone else need it. The card also includes a cell phone number to reach the vehicles owner. Use of protocol cards should ensure EV owners share the chargers responsibly.

Posted in Blink, ChargePoint, Electric Car, Level 2 EV Charger, Nissan LEAF, Review | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

1st Middle Tennessee LEAF Meetup a success!!

Posted on August 28, 2011 by jpwhitehome

LEAF's at large - Click to Enlarge

The turn out at the 1st Middle Tennessee LEAF meetup at Nissan US manufacturing and logistics facility at Smyrna TN  was a resounding success!! I counted 9 LEAF’s, most of which quickly hooked up to the Blink Level 2 solar assisted chargers. Of the 9 chargers at Continue reading →

Posted in Blink, Electric Car, Level 2 EV Charger, Nissan LEAF | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Where is the fast charge infrastructure we were promised?

Posted on August 23, 2011 by jpwhitehome

This last weekend I took a trip to Dickson TN. We had to leave the LEAF at home due to a lack of quick chargers in our area. The journey is about 60 miles in each direction making it a 120 mile round trip. This is out of range for the LEAF unless one can charge at some point during the journey. A charge via a 110v outlet would take way too long, even charging Continue reading →

Posted in Electric Car, Nissan LEAF | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

LEAF second hand market sputters

Posted on August 18, 2011 by jpwhitehome

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Two additional LEAF’s for sale on eBay motors have only one bid between them. It appears the initial interest in picking up LEAF’s on the second hand market is falling off. This is no doubt due to the 2012 LEAF being available for reservation. Those seeking a vehicle previously could not reserve a LEAF since Nissan closed reservations once 20,000 people had signed up. Now reservations are open again those people have a route to owning a LEAF. Another likely reason is that gas is slowly creeping down in price, so the incentive to find an alternative fuel vehicle has gone down.

I have calculated the breakeven point of buying a new LEAF versus buying a new Versa, and the breakeven point (with the support of government incentives) occurs when gas costs $2.86. Without government incentives gas would have to climb up to $5/Gal or more or the price of the new electric vehicles come down considerably.

Posted in Cost Benefit, eBay, Electric Car, Nissan LEAF | Leave a comment

mynissanleaf web forums suspended

Posted on August 17, 2011 by jpwhitehome

One of the most active Nissan LEAF forums mynissanleaf.com  is offline this morning. Visitors to the site are greeted with the message “This account has been suspended. Please contact the billing/support department as soon as possible”. Judging by the error provided it’s because the amount of storage or web traffic on the site this month has exceeded the hosters’ account quota.

The forum uses a open source forum system called phpbb. The software itself is free, but someone has to pony up the money or resources to host a server 24/7/365 and the internet bandwidth it consumes.

The site is advertising supported, members can have the adverts suppressed if they contribute $10 to the forum owner. So the site should have generated some money, maybe it’s just on too low of a hosting plan. The traffic and storage consumed will have increased as the number of LEAF owners has increased and signed up as members.

Hopefully the forum owner will resolve the issue later today.

Update: 201-08-17 12:48pm CDT

The Forum is operating normally again. I found the following comment on a Facebook Page I discovered.

The site was planned to be moved this weekend once we received funding etc. This is a double whammy outage, as the Domain Registrar is reporting name server routing issues, and the web host is having issues at the same time. We will be moving the site to the new server as soon as we can – hopefully later today.

Looks like it was a perfect storm of technical issues. It was brought back online reasonably quickly.

Posted in Electric Car, Nissan LEAF, phpbb | Tagged , , , | 6 Comments

First Experience with ‘Range Anxiety’

Posted on August 14, 2011 by jpwhitehome

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This weekend we ventured out further than we have before. After doing routine journeys the vehicle was left with a  75% charge. We planned to go to PF Chang’s for dinner. The round trip of 46 miles was easily in the range of the vehicle, so I didn’t top off the charge prior to us setting off.

I soon realized that carrying 3 adults and child at 70 Mph was using more energy than would normally be the case. We used 30% of the charge on the journey downtown. I already had used 25% earlier in the day so I reckoned we’d be left with 15% by the time we got home.

I did go faster when I realized we had enough to get home, so used more on the return journey, we got back with 8% left or maybe 6-7 miles range left.

Next time we go downtown I’ll be sure to leave on a 100% charge, which will leave a comfortable margin for any unplanned detours or traffic holdup’s.

Click to Enlarge

Interestingly the Nissan Vehicle Website is now very pessimistic regarding the miles I will get on an 80% charge. It figures maybe 44 miles.  It must base its estimates on recent trips. The return trip to PF Chang’s was 46 miles which I did with 67% of a charge. I would estimate 55 miles based on those figures. A full charge would go about 68 miles.

This underlies the fact that the LEAF is primarily a commuter vehicle, it does not go very far on the highway at 70 Mph with a full load of passengers. Now if PF Chang’s had a charging station then it wouldn’t matter as much. Building out an electrical charging infrastructure is crucial to the success of all electric vehicles.

On the upside the entire day of travel cost $1.36 in electric. In a gasoline vehicle that gets 30 miles/gal one would only be able to go 11 1/2 miles for the same cost. About half the distance to PF Chang’s.

Posted in Electric Car, Nissan LEAF | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

7th LEAF goes on sale at eBay – Looks promising

Posted on August 9, 2011 by jpwhitehome

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A dealer is trying to sell a used LEAF on eBay and already has several bids for the vehicle. The reserve is not met yet, but the interest level is quite high for a newly listed item. I figure this one could easily sell. I believe setting a reserve but allowing bids to start from a relatively low amount generates good interest on eBay. Other unsuccessful sellers have been setting a high initial price, which discourages bids and costs the seller more in eBay listing fees.

Update 2011-08-17

The car didn’t sell after all. Several cars have now failed to meet MSRP on eBay which suggests to me the market has cooled off for the 2011 LEAF, most probably due to the fact that the 2012 is now available to be reserved. The maximum bid was just over $31,000 several thousand short of the retail price.

Click to Enlarge

Posted in eBay, Electric Car, Nissan LEAF | Leave a comment

Other than stomping on the brakes, I’m a good driver

Posted on August 4, 2011 by jpwhitehome

According to the data captured by Nissan/CarWings. I accelerate gently and am frugal with car accessories. However they ding me on my braking.

Click on the graphic below to see the type of data available to a LEAF driver via the web.

Click to Enlarge

The information available via the website is both interesting and spooky. For example Continue reading →

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I applied for my HOV Lane SMART Pass today

Posted on August 3, 2011 by jpwhitehome

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I applied for a Tennessee HOV Lane Smart Pass decal which will allow me to ride in the HOV lanes in Tennessee regardless of the number of passengers in the vehicle.

Not sure how long it will take to receive the decal, but I’ve been assured the LEAF qualifies as a vehicle in this program. The program was started several years ago when Hybrid’s came on the market.

Ironically the LEAF is most efficient at 38Mph, at 70Mph it is much less efficient and will use more electrictricity. So granting LEAF’s access to the HOV lanes actually goes against the premise of the program 🙂

Tree Huggers need not apply.

If you have a leaf check out the Department of Revenues website.

Update: I got my HOV Smart Pass Sticker within 10 days of application. the process was quick and easy.

Posted in Electric Car, Nissan LEAF | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Nissan LEAF – The Bad

Posted on August 2, 2011 by jpwhitehome

I’m very pleased with my Nissan LEAF, however nothing is perfect. Here are some of the most glaring issues I’ve found to date.

1. No Spare Tire.

Nissan provide a ‘fix-a-flat’ instead. Clearly this is a space and weight saving measure. Instant flat fixes are only good for minor punctures, they won’t fix a blow-out. They also make a mess of the interior of the wheel rim.

If I get a flat I’m calling the roadside assistance. The LEAF comes with 3 years roadside assistance as standard. In the 6 1/2 years I drove my Chevy Classic, I never had to change the wheel due to a flat, so I suppose it’s not such a big deal.

2. Charging guidelines  cut range by 40%

Nissan advise customers of two charging cycles. A 100% full charge cycle which provides the full ‘advertised’ vehicle range, or an 80% charge cycle which provides for extended battery life. Nissan also advise not to allow the charge to fall below 20% if you wish to extend battery life as long as possible.

Essentially they are saying to keep batteries in tip top shape for as long as is practically possible, do not use the top and bottom 20% of the batteries Continue reading →

Posted in Electric Car, Nissan LEAF, Opinion, Review | Tagged , , , | 7 Comments