The City of Alameda installed a pair of Chargepoint dual Level 1 / Level 2 charging stations at the Alameda Theater parking garage. The first incarnation of public charging there was three 120v outlets, installed around 2009. There were installed because I asked the city engineers to consider EV parking as they built the parking structure. I had a Citicar then, and most days would be the only one parked in one of the three EV spots. In 2010 or so, the city installed a Chargepoint unit, replacing one of the 120v outlets. It was still a rare occurrence to see more than my Citicar parked there. I installed a J1772 system in the Citicar to take advantage of the faster charging afforded by Level 2 charging. With the advent of the Leaf, the city installed a second Chargepoint station, and removed the remaining 120v outlet. In 2012, the charging stations began to see more use, and for the first time I saw three EVs using the three EV parking spaces! Since mid-2012, it has become quite common for the three spaces to be occupied, and I occasionally find I have to park my EV (currently an Electricar) elsewhere. Most of the time, the EV drivers will plug in their cars, but sometimes they just use the spaces as their 'reserved' space and don't plug in. More recently, PIHs have been parking there as well, plugging in about half of the time. Some recent highlights - Four Leafs in a row (two charging). Four different EVs (Tesla model S, Leaf, Electricar and a BMW Active E) all four plugged in! Three different Ford plug-ins (new Ford Escort EV, Ford C-Max PIH, Electricar (1989 Escort conversion). All three charging. This particular location has become quite popular with plug-in vehicles. The problem used to be that there weren't enough EVs to justify installing charging infrastructure, now it seems to be a case of not enough infrastructure to be able be certain a plug will be available. I suppose the next step is to petition the city to install another pair of charging pedestals.
Tom Keenan _______________________________________________ UNSUBSCRIBE: http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org For EV drag racing discussion, please use NEDRA (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NEDRA)
