BMW ChargeNow EVgo Expansion Underway In U.S.

BMW continues to make news with regards to electric vehicle infrastructure and customer charging programs. Coming off yesterday’s Nissan partnership news, today BMW has announced the expansion of their ChargeNow by EVgo program.

The ChargeNow by EVgo program was initiated by BMW in November of 2015, and was active in 25 ChargeNow DC Fast EVgo metro markets. The expansion now includes the entire national network of DC Fast charging station in 33 states covering more than 50 metro areas. BMW claims that the now-expanded network will be accessible for over 92% of new i3 owners. There are a number of different options and aspects of the ChargeNow EVgo program, including two years of unlimited, free DC Fast charge access to BMW i3 owners that purchased or leased a new i3 from November 1st, 2015 onward.  

From the press release:

ChargeNow by EVgo no-cost and specially priced public charging

programs - exclusively for BMW i and iPerformance drivers - now

available in more than 50 metro areas across the U.S.

   * ChargeNow by EVgo provides no cost and low cost public charging

      access programs designed for BMW i and BMW iPerformance owners

      across the entire EVgo network– now including charging stations in 33

      states.

   * This expansion enables more than 92 percent of new BMW i3 drivers to

      enroll in ChargeNow DC Fast for 2 years of no-cost charging. Owners

      of Certified Pre-Owned BMW i3 and i8 vehicles can enroll for 1 year of

      no-cost charging at EVgo stations.

   * Drivers can easily enroll at www.ChargeNowUSA.com using their

      ChargeNow card, for access to the nearly 670 EVgo DC Fast charging

      stations, plus Level 2 chargers, now available across the country.

 “The pace at which we have been making charging infrastructure partnership announcements recently shows that BMW continues to aggressively pursue the company’s commitment to our e-mobility customers, with our steadfast support for growing the public charging infrastructure across the U.S.,” commented Cliff Fietzek, Manager Connected eMobility at BMW of North America, LLC. 

“Using their ChargeNow card, our BMW i3, i8, and iPerformance drivers now have access to the entire EVgo charging network. By supporting the continued growth of publicly available DC Fast charging across the U.S., BMW is helping more drivers make the switch to an e-mobility lifestyle with confidence.”

 

The EVgo DC Fast charge network now includes 668 Fast charge stations. That number will soon exceed 700 with the 50 additional stations that will be installed as part of the BMW/Nissan partnership.

The EVgo network currently consists of 668 dual-port (CHAdeMO & Combo) 50kW DC Fast charge stations and will soon increase by another 50 with the BMW / Nissan partnership that was announced yesterday. BMW had previously partnered with Volkswagen and ChargePoint to install roughly 100 DC Fast Charge stations for the East Coast & West Coast Express Charging Corridors which were completed in 2016 and has expressed the willingness to partner with any OEM willing to invest in EV charging infrastructure.

BMW EV Infrastructure Discussions from the LA Auto Show: Part 2

On a recent trip to Vermont I stopped at Prestige BMW in New Jersey on both legs of the journey. They recently installed two 24 kW DC Fast Charge stations that are accessible 24/7 and free to use. A robust DC Fast charge infrastructure is crucial for mass EV adoption.

This is the second half of a two part post on BMW's infrastructure plans, current and future. Having spent time with BMW's EV infrastructure team at the LA Auto Show, (Robert Healey, Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Manager, Idine Ghoreishian, Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Specialist, and Cliff Fietzek, Manager of Connected eMobility) I posted the first half of this report last week. In that post, we discussed the East and West Coast Express Charging Corridors, and the just-announced ChargeNow DC Fast program.

ChargeNow DC Fast:

I reached out to Jeremy Desel, Director of Communications for EVgo, to discuss the deployment rate of the 500 ChargeNow DC Fast stations. What Desel told me was pretty impressive: "We have been able to add nearly 100 additional 50kW DC Fast Combo chargers in six weeks, in 25 markets."  EVgo certainly didn't waste any time, and began installing Combo stations immediately after the announcement of the partnership with BMW for ChargeNow DC Fast. That's good news for the i3 (and all Combo) owners who have been patiently waiting for Combo (CCS) infrastructure to proliferate. Speaking with Desel he told me they are able to move quickly because EVgo had the foresight to future proof EVgo DC Fast charge sites. When these sites were initially built, they were designed to be easily upgraded and expanded. That fact will certainly help EVgo meet the 2018 completion date to get all 500 Combo stations in the ChargeNow DC Fast program installed on time. EVgo currently has 104 Combo DC Fast Charge stations operational in California, the result of the initial phase of the ChargeNow DC Fast program which began in 2014.

One aspect of the ChargeNow DC Fast expansion program which wasn't discussed in part one was the fact that new BMW i3 buyers will have unlimited free access to this network for two years. To qualify, you need to buy or lease an i3 on or after November 1st, 2015. If you bought or leased your i3 before that, you do not qualify and will have to pay the current rates for access to EVgo's DC fast charge network. That didn't sit well with many current i3 owners, and some expressed their dissatisfaction to it. I wanted to get an idea of how the i3 community felt about this so I ran a poll in the BMW i3 FaceBook Group. Sixty percent (109 of 181) of respondents said they weren't happy with it, and felt BMW should allow all i3 owners free access to the network for two years, not just new owners.

Personally, I'm not a fan of offering this kind of unlimited free DC Fast charge access as a purchase incentive. Nissan announced a similar plan for new LEAF buyers called "No Charge to Charge" back in 2013. I believe it promotes abuse, and in many instances will be counter productive as stations will be unnecessarily overused simply because they are free. Even Tesla is having issues with unnecessary Supercharger use. They recently sent out letters urging Model S owners to only use the Superchargers when they need to for long journeys. Free, unlimited use will result in i3 owners plugging into DC Fast charge stations within close proximity to their homes, and those stations then won't be available to the drivers who actually need them to complete a long journey.  I'd much prefer to see BMW offer i3 owners a discounted rate, or a limited number of free sessions as a purchase incentive. This free promotion is clearly a marketing tool that BMW plans to use to attract new i3 customers, and I don't think it went unnoticed that many current i3 owners weren't happy with it. Although I couldn't get any comment on this, I got the feeling that BMW may be working on something they can offer to current i3 drivers, as well as i8 and eDrive owners, so stay tuned.

Rob Healey plugs an i3 into a DC Fast charge Freedom station   

Another topic we discussed is the fact that many current EVgo Station locations don't support the Combo connector that BMW uses. The competing DC Fast Charge system, CHAdeMO, which is used by the Asian manufacturers, had about a three year head start getting established in the US before any Combo (CCS) stations were installed. Because of that, there are a lot of EVgo Station locations which are CHAdeMO DC fast charge units. I wanted to know if those locations would remain CHAdeMO only, or if they would be upgraded to support the Combo connector also. To that Fietzek said: "Where there is currently a EVgo Station that is only CHAdeMO, they will either swap that station to a dual-connector unit which supports the Combo also, or install a second station which is Combo. When we are done with this project in 2018 there will no longer be any EVgo Station locations which only support CHAdeMO, they will also Combo."

The Future: Better, faster and widespread:

I then turned the conversation to the future of EV charging, and asked the group to comment on what's next for BMW. I specifically pointed to Audi's announcement with regards to their electric vehicle plans, and the fact that Audi's press conference had just taken place where they said the 2018 eTron Quattro would support 150kW charging. Audi also promised to offer "Access to Nationwide Network of 150kW charging stations" and that these stations would begin to be available when the vehicle is offered for sale in 2018. 150kW DC Fast charging is a huge step forward compared to the 24 kW and 50 kW DC Fast charging stations which BMW and their partners are currently deploying. So I asked if BMW is going to be able to keep up with the competition.

Healey started out talking about how quickly the landscape of electric vehicle charging has advanced. Back in the days of the MINI-E, Healey was the MINI-E technical coordinator. I got to know him then as I was one of the MINI-E lessees and he was in charge of keeping the fleet on the road. He added: "You've been with us from the beginning, Tom. If you step back just a few years you'll remember how we struggled just to get the wallboxes installed in the MINI-E customer's garages. So for a while there we mostly focused on level 2 charging. Then came the 24kW and 50kW DC fast charging which we are currently deploying, and now we're already working on charging at much higher speeds. So if you really think about it, we've actually advanced a lot in a 5 to 6 year time frame. This is the natural progression; to continue to introduce faster levels of charging, but we can't sit and wait. We need to install what we have available to us now. We can't underestimate the other side of public infrastructure; the psychological aspect. We need to get the chargers out there, they need to be seen. This is not only important for current EV drivers, but for potential EV owners. They want to see the infrastructure before they buy the car. We'll continue to upgrade the infrastructure as better options become available."

Audi made news in LA with promising to offer access to a nationwide 150 kW DC fast charge network.

Fietzek then offered the following:  "Yes, we have seen some announcements from other OEMs at the show here today. We are currently working with the other OEMs on increasing the charging standard to 150kW and higher. (Here Fietzek is referring to The Charging Interface Initiative association - CharIN) Once we have defined the new charging level we need to then determine the best way to implement it. We have already shown 150kW charging at Baden Baden, and together with the other German OEMs we are working on defining the standard and determine the costs. We are also supporting an EVgo CPUC program here in California to demonstrate new 150kW high-powered charging. Part of our commitment is to provide test cars to test these station as well as technology. So yes, we are working on it, but we don't have any news as far as when or which cars will use this technology just yet." 

Speaking of partnering with other OEM's in infrastructure projects Healey said: "BMW is open and willing to work with all industry stakeholders that are committed to supporting EV infrastructure projects. The partnership programs that we have launched have afforded us a wealth of knowledge and lessons learned that we will continue to share and apply to the expansion of the US charging infrastructure to benefit our current and future customers. The old adage 'A rising tide lifts all boats' is especially appropriate with EV infrastructure. Working together will only expedite our goal of making electric mobility more accessible and appealing to even more drivers."

BMW is a founding member of the newly formed ROEV association

On Interoperability:

Finally, one cumbersome aspect of public charging is that we don't really have network interoperability. It's kind of been a bit like the Wild, Wild, West out there the past five years with many different network providers offering many different types of EV charging equipment, and very little cooperation amongst all of the various stakeholders. An EV driver may have to carry four or five different network cards, pay an annual or monthly fee for some of them, pay for replacement cards and make sure you have all of them with you because you never know when you'll need one. Having true network interoperability would be so much more convenient. Well, it looks like we may have taken the first real step in that direction.

Soon  EV drivers will only need to carry one card. Photo credit: Patrick Connor

BMW and Nissan, joined network providers ChargePoint, EVgo and Car Charging Group as the five founding partners of ROEV, which stands for "roaming for EV charging."  In addition to the founding partners, several more companies have joined ROEV, including Audi, Honda, Efacec, Portland General Electric, SemaConnect, and BTC Power. They are still a couple of months away from officially launching the program, but once that's happened, a BMW customer will be able to use their ChargeNow card, or any participating network RFID card, to access any charging station operated by the participating networks. What isn't clear yet is whether or not using a card from one network to access another network's charging station will result in an additional fee, like roaming fees on mobile phones. And since the name of this new enterprise included the word "roaming," I'm guessing there will be some kind of roaming fee to access stations from competing networks. The good news is that the three founding partner networks, ChargePoint, Car Charging Group/Blink and EVgo currently operate 17,500 of the 19,000 (91%) public charging stations in the US, so interoperability among these three giant networks alone is a huge step forward.

Rob Healey speaking at the ROEV press conference at the LA Auto Show.
Pictured on stage just to the left of Healey is Idine Ghoreishian

Speaking of BMW's participation in ROEV, Ghoreishian said, "As much as it sometimes may not seem like it, we are indeed listening to what our customers are saying and constantly working to make things better. The goal with ROEV is to improve the experience of owning an EV. We've heard our customers complain about needing multiple network cards, and we feel ROEV's network interoperability will enhance the electric vehicle ownership experience."  

This of course is all good news. With Tesla not showing any signs of slowing down in their relentless pursuit to install Supercharger infrastructure, the CHAdeMO Association continuing to expand their worldwide network and now the Combo (CCS) standard beginning to really proliferate, all EV drivers will benefit in the long run. Getting the infrastructure in the ground is the most important and most difficult thing. In my opinion, at some point in the future there will be a single winner in the "connector wars" and it may not even be one of the existing "standards" used today. When that's decided, it will be easy to just swap out the connectors on the stations to whatever standard is the ultimate winner. For now we really just need to continue to get the infrastructure in the ground and the problem of which standard wins will eventually work itself out.

BMW EV Infrastructure Discussions from the LA Auto Show: Part 1

A few weeks ago at the LA Auto Show, BMW made news by announcing a partnership with NRG's EVgo to install an additional 500 DC Fast Charge stations in 25 major US markets. The project is called the ChergeNow DC Fast and is actually the second phase of a program started in 2014, which brought 100 DC fast charge stations to select California areas. I was there at the show for Press Preview days, and had the opportunity to sit down with basically all of the top EV infrastructure managers at BMW of North America. Seated at the table were Robert Healey, Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Manager, Idine Ghoreishian, Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Specialist, and Cliff Fietzek, Manager of Connected eMobility.

Even though the news of the ChargeNow DC Fast program had just been released, I wanted to first talk about the East and West Coast Express Charging Corridors. If you remember, this program was announced back in January at NAIAS and the press release stated that approximately 100 stations would be installed in these corridors (Washington, DC to Boston, MA on the East Coast, and San Diego, CA, to Portland, OR, on the West Coast) and it would be completed by the end of 2015. This was a joint venture between BMW, Volkswagen and ChargePoint. ChargePoint is responsible for the installations, and BMW and VW are basically telling them where they want them, and footing the vast majority of the bill. Time is running out and I knew they wouldn't hit the predicted deadline, so I asked the group what happened, and when can we expect it to be done. Here are some quotes from the discussion:

Rob Healey, BMW's top EV infrastructure manager

When asked about why they missed the predicted end of 2015 completion date, Fietzek said: "The business model for ChargePoint changed for this program. Before this they were responding to site hosts that wanted to have a charger installed. Basically the site host would call them, and say they wanted a charger. Now, ChargePoint had to go out and say to property owners, 'I need to put a charger here, because BMW and Volkswagen want me to, do you want to work with us?' This was very different from what they were accustomed to."

50kW DC stations which are part of the
West Coast Express Charging Corridor.
Photo credit: Tony Williams

Ghoreishian added: "Another challenge of placement goes back to our goal of making sure they were no more than 50 miles apart. Seventy five miles just won't work."

I also learned that getting the sites in good locations was more important than just getting them in the ground and meeting a deadline. BMW knew these locations would likely be used for years to come, so it would be worth their while to take the time to make sure they got good locations. In that vein, Healey had this to say: "There is a process in place between BMW and VW; collectively we have the final (site) approval. There were a lot of sites offered to us that we rejected. For instance, we looked at the customer and said, 'Do you want to have your wife go in and charge in this area late at night?' There were sites that we rejected because we didn't think it was a safe place. We want the best sites for our customers, basically."

I then asked if they thought BMW should finish this program before they start new infrastructure projects, like the NRG EVgo program which had just been announced and Fietzek quickly said: "Different partners, different projects. I'd rather have them running in parallel than waiting for one to finish before starting another. We'll get things done much faster this way."

Cliff Fietzek, Manager of Connected eMobility for BMW of North America, stands in front of the special edition Shadow Sport i3 on display at the LA Auto Show

Finally, I asked that since it's clear the program won't be finished on time, when can we expect the two Express Charging Corridors to be completed, and Healey answered: "Yeah, we're a little delayed. We're now shooting for early spring for completion. We always knew it was going to be tight. We sat with ChargePoint, we talked to the Volkswagen people and said, 'Can we do this in one year?' We knew approximately where we wanted to install the stations, but we still needed to contact the property owners, sign site host agreements, go through permitting and that just took more time than we expected. If you look at the ramp up, we started off slow, but are now really ramping up. We should have about 52 stations active by then end of the year, with another 19 already under construction. We're looking at finishing in late March or April."

Having personally gone through the process of installing a DC fast charger on my property in Montclair, NJ, I know the challenges that can arise during the process. I'll actually be pretty impressed if they do finish by Spring. That would mean that they installed the 100 stations on two coasts in about 15 months, and the company doing all of the site host agreements, permitting and installations never really took on a project like this before. That's really not bad in my opinion.

The DC Fast Charge Station I installed in Montclair, NJ. It's part of the East Coast Express Charging Corridor program

With that progress update on the East and West Coast Express Charging Corridors finished, I turned the discussion to the announcement made just hours before, the national ChargeNow DC Fast expansion. This is actually an expansion of a program started in 2014, when BMW and NRG teamed up to install 100 DC Fast chargers to select California markets. That program was completed earlier this year, and this is the second phase. There will be an additional 500 DC Fast chargers installed in 25 markets around the country.

When I asked about why they chose these specific markets, Healey said, "One of the important points of the expansion of the NRG program is that these 25 markets cover 80% of our current i3 sales. Now, we don't want to forget about the other 20% of our customers; we're working on it, and you'll be hearing from us shortly about how we're filling in the other 20%. It's really a systematic approach."

The 25 markets covered in this second phase of the program are:
 
Atlanta, GA; Austin, TX; Boston, MA; Chicago, IL; Dallas, TX; Denver, CO; Fresno, CA; Houston, TX; Los Angeles, CA; Miami, FL; Monterey, CA; Nashville, TN; New York, NY; Orlando, FL; Philadelphia, PA; Phoenix, AZ; Portland, OR; Raleigh, NC; Sacramento, CA; Salt Lake City, UT; San Diego, CA; San Francisco, CA; Santa Barbara, CA; Seattle, WA and Washington, DC.

Arun Banskota, President and CEO of NRG's EVgo had this to say about the program:

“It is our mission to install the right charging solutions at the right places, and EV drivers have overwhelmingly told us they prefer DC Fast chargers at public spaces. Over the next 24 months EVgo will add reliable DC Fast Combo capability to what is already America’s largest DC Fast charging network. This will be the fastest and most cost effective build out of a new network ever – thanks in large part to our existing infrastructure and committed retail host partners... The only way such a massive expansion is possible is because of the purpose built, and forward looking planning behind the EVgo network...EVgo has installed infrastructure with the ability to efficiently and economically add this new DC Fast Combo standard as the number of electric vehicles have increased. EVgo owns and operates our chargers with long term agreements with premium retail hosts, and is able to provide the level of customer service, reliability, and pricing that will lead to increased EV adoption and high satisfaction among the existing base of EV drivers.”

The deployment rate of these 500 stations is expected to be aggressive. NRG is a very large company with vast resources and plenty of experience with regards to installing infrastructure. After all, they are an electric utility company. Healey told me that they have existing sites that currently have CHAdeMO stations that they'll be adding a Combo (CCS) station to, as well as many other sites already identified and ready to go. He expects to see hundreds of stations completed within the first year and the entire 500 stations in the ground and operational by the end of 2018. He even said that he's being conservative with these predictions based on the lessons learned by the previous programs they worked on, and that it is quite possible that they finish earlier than the mid 2018 prediction.

Since I had over an hour with the team, we covered a lot of infrastructure topics and there's just too much for one post. Check back next week for part two when the discussion turns to BMW's decision to offer free charging, but only for new i3 buyers, the future of DC charging and BMW's long term commitment to EV infrastructure.

First Public CCS DC Fast Charger in New Jersey Getting Action

This CCS DC Quick Charge station is located on my property at 148 Valley Road, Montclair, NJ

Back in August I posted an article that announced the opening of the first DC fast charger in the East Coast Express Charging Corridor. That station was installed in Hartford, Connecticut. The Express Charging Corridor when completed will connect Washington, DC to Boston, Massachusetts with CCS DC fast chargers, located no more than 50 miles apart, and is being funded by a joint venture between BMW, Volkswagen and ChargePoint.

About three weeks after the station in Hartford was installed, I installed one on my property in Montclair, NJ. It was the first public CCS station in the state that wasn't installed on BMW property. BMW has had a few CCS fast chargers at their North American headquarters for a few years now, as they have been testing CCS since 2012, when they were using a modified BMW ActiveE with CCS capability as a test mule for the then yet-to-be-released i3.

So far the DCQC station is getting plenty of use from i3 owners

CCS fast charge infrastructure had a slow start, frustrating many i3 owners. It was difficult to watch the Asian standard CHAdeMO stations and Tesla Superchargers continue to proliferate, while CCS stations were as rare as White Rhinos. However the pace of CCS deployment has really picked up, and with the East and West Coast Express Charging Corridors beginning to take shape, it's starting to look like CCS is finally getting some traction.

The station I installed is the smaller of the two that will be used in these corridors. I have the 24kW, CCS only DC fast charger but there is another unit that will also be deployed on many of the direct highway locations. That unit is a dual head, CCS and CHAdeMO station and is capable of delivering up to 50kW. Because of the location on my property (not situated on a highway), and the primary tenant is a restaurant where people typically spend an hour or more, the 24kW unit made more sense, and it costs a LOT less. The lower power draw will also help me to avoid or minimize demand charges from my electric provider.

The eGolf owners were very pleased when they realized the DCQC in my lot was close to the route they planned to take to Massachusetts. They only had to drive a few miles off of their route to stop by and Quick Charge

I installed the station a little over two months ago and it's definitely getting use. I've had at least a couple dozen different i3 owners stop by and use it, and I recently had an eGolf owner who was driving from Delaware to Massachusetts stop by to charge up. I was talking to them about the trip and how long it would take to stop and charge at level 2 stations and how happy there were when they saw my DCQC station pop up on the Plugshare map.

Fast charge infrastructure is monumentally important for the mass adoption of plug in cars. Tesla knew the success of the Model S, and probably even the entire company, would hinge on how quickly they could cover large swaths of the US and other key markets with Supercharger access. They have been installing them at an incredible rate, and have installed more than 500 worldwide in under 3 years.

Nissan has also done their fair share with regards to DC fast charge infrastructure and has subsidized much of the costs of hundreds of CHAdeMO installations. Personally, I'm hoping Volkswagen steps up and commits to installing even more infrastructure than the current plan in light of the current dieselgate scandal. Making a commitment to assisting the proliferation of cleaner electric cars would be a good first step in restoring public confidence at this point.

We are getting there. EV charging infrastructure, both level 2 and DC fast charge, is still really in its infancy, but we're definitely making progress in some areas of the country (mainly the coasts). I remember back to 2009 when I was driving my MINI-E and there wasn't a public charging station within a thousand miles of me. In fact, the closest one may have even been 3,000 miles away in California.  Now there are tens of thousands of them in the US. I can only imagine how things will look in another five or six years.

The Plugshare map on the left shows only CCS DC Fast charge stations on the East Coast. Just a year ago at this time there were none in this view. Within a couple of months, there will be dozens more of them as the Express Charging Corridor locations are finished. The large gap south of my restaurant (the blue dot) will hopefully be closed by year's end. The pace of CCS deployment is definitely picking up, and I believe will only continue to accelerate from here on.

First DCQC Unit in the East Coast Express Charging Corridor Installed

An i3 sits next to a 24kW DC Fast Charge unit during the announcement of the BMW, VW & ChargePoint joint venture earlier this year. 

It's been seven months since BMW, along with Volkswagen and ChargePoint announced a joint venture which would install roughly 100 DC fast charge units on the East and West coasts. While there's been a lot of work identifying potential locations and negotiating with site managers, there hasn't really been any tangible progress that electric vehicle owners could see.  

The plan is to create "Express Charging Corridors" on both coasts, with DC Fast Charge stations placed no more than 50 miles apart. The East Coast Corridor will connect Washington DC to Boston, Massachusetts and the West Coast Corridor would extend from San Diego, California to Portland, Oregon.  There would be two kinds of DC Fast Charge stations utilized. The stations placed directly on the highway locations of the corridors would be 50kW units, most of which will be dual head CCS & CHAdeMO stations. Then, on secondary locations slightly off the direct corridors, 24kW CCS-only units will be placed. While these 24kW units aren't necessarily quite fast enough to be convenient for long distance travel of hundreds of miles, they are very useful for intercity travel and charge at three to four times the speed of standard level 2 public charging.

ChargePoint's East and West Coast Express Charging Corridor Infographic

I applied, and was recently approved under the program guidelines to have one of the 24kW units installed on my commercial property in Montclair New Jersey.  I'm currently awaiting the permits to be approved and hope to have the station installed and working before my National Drive Electric Week event on September 12th. Always the competitor, I was also hoping to be the first East Coast public location in the program to get a station installed, but I'm actually happy to report that won't be the case. That's because a friend of mine and fellow BMW i3 owner, Bruce Redman Becker has beaten me to it. Bruce, and architect and developer, is responsible for 777 Main Street in Hartford Connecticut, a newly developed 285 unit apartment building with a 250 car parking garage. In describing the location to me, Bruce had this to say:

"The site is just two blocks from exits off I-91 and off I-84.  We have one SAE combo DC fast charger and 10 level 2 chargers (3 duals in the surface lot and 2 duals up the ramp within the covered garage).  Power  for all 11 Chargepoint chargers comes from a 400kw fuel cell adjacent to the chargers that also provides renewable clean energy to heat and power the apartment tower….We have three coffee shops on our block, including a Blue State Coffee on the first floor of 777 Main opening in September.  And there are over a dozen great restaurants nearby as well as a great camera shop, CVS, banks and the Hartford Atheneum museum to enjoy while charging."

An i3 using the DC Fast Charger at 777 Main Street, Hartford Connecticut 

So while none of the main corridor, 50kW units have been installed yet, it seems the secondary, 24kW stations are beginning to materialize here on the East Coast, which is welcome news. I know some i3 owners have been frustrated by the seemingly lack of action with regards to the DC Fast Charge roll out, but I also know first hand that BMW and ChargePoint have been working very hard to locate potential locations, negotiate site agreements and collect bids for the installation. They've been at it for half a year now and I believe we're going to begin to see some real progress made in the next couple months. Getting the first one up and running can sometime seem like the biggest hurdle in programs like this. Well, now that that's done I'm optimistic that in the next six months we'll see dramatic progress made on both coasts. 

Three 24kW DCFC units have been up and running at BMW Headquarters in Woodcliff Lake, NJ since January. They are open to the public and free to use.

Georgia Tax Credit Ending Soon, BMW i3 Owners Rejoice at SAE Combo DCFC Rollout

With the proliferation of electric vehicles like the i3, the absence of a robust fast charge infrastructure becomes more and more difficult to ignore. There are indeed areas of California which are served very well with DC Fast Charge stations, however for many EV owners outside California, Fast charge stations are something they only dream about. Georgia however, has been making some great progress with DCFC. Georgia resident and i3 owner Chris Campbell tells us what's happening with DC Fast Charge in the Peach State.

Chris with his Volt back in 2010

You may remember Chris from a post he made here last year. Chris was the very first Chevy Volt owner in Georgia back in 2010. He authored a guest blog post here telling his story and why he had decided to get a BMW i3 when he turned in his Volt. Many i3 purchases have come from buyers which were early adopters and had leased an early Volt or LEAF. Chris has been active in the Atlanta area's EV scene for a while and maintains a website full of EV information, which can be found here: www.http://electrifyatlanta.com
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For over a decade, Georgia has offered a generous $5,000 tax credit in support of getting an electric vehicle (EV). But only in the last three to four years has the market offered affordable cars with usable range, and suddenly huge numbers of Georgians have taken advantage of that incentive. In the last session, the state legislature took notice of this growth and killed the tax credit altogether, with it officially ending this month. June 30th is the last day that Georgians can get an EV (purchased or leased) and still be able to claim the credit when filing taxes next year.

So there is now one last mad rush to take advantage of one of the best EV incentives in the country. Potential EV owners are making their final decisions and dealers are scrambling to respond to demand and maintain inventory.

BMW i3 owner "heat map" illustrates Atlanta hot spot

The Nissan Leaf, by far the highest volume EV in the Georgia market, continues to dominate sales, but the BMW i3 has also enjoyed success in the Atlanta market, as illustrated by this "heat map" showing locations where owners voluntarily listed themselves on the i3 owner map. Atlanta is a true hotspot for EV ownership, and has an active i3 owner group!

NRG EVGO station at Mall of Georgia, CHAdeMO only

Besides the state tax credit, however, there has been another factor energizing EV uptake in Georgia: a large and accelerating roll out of DC Fast Charging (DCFC) stations. The first DCFC stations (CHAdeMO for Leafs) arrived in north Georgia in July 2013 via The EV Project (aka Blink), but the CHAdeMO rollout really accelerated in November 2014 when NRG entered the Atlanta market with their EVGO CHAdeMO stations. As of this writing there are now over 30 CHAdeMO stations in the metro Atlanta region, with another dozen expected online in June.

Two competing DCFC plug standards, SAE Combo (left) and CHAdeMO (right)

Of course, as most EV owners know, there is not just one DCFC plug standard -- there are three!  In 2008, before the current wave of EVs, the automakers all (except for Tesla) agreed on a Level 2 standard, the J1772 plug that is now familiar to all EV owners. But they did not come to an agreement on DCFC (sometimes inaccurately called Level 3), and so the EV market split into three camps:

- Nissan and other East Asia automakers: CHAdeMO
- Tesla: Proprietary Supercharger
- Everyone else including BMW, VW, GM:  SAE Combined Combo System (CCS)

Since that market split, the three different camps have proceeded with their respective DCFC station rollouts, with Chademo and Tesla fighting for the lead and SAE Combo in a distant third. However, we have started to see "dual standard" DCFC stations hit the worldwide market, offering both CHAdeMO and SAE Combo. While these stations do not directly support the Tesla interface, Tesla owners can now buy a $450 adapter from Tesla Motors, that lets them charge from CHAdeMO stations. So these dual-standard stations effectively support all three standards. Of course Tesla cars have far larger batteries, offer far more range, and typically take advantage of their own network of ultra-fast DCFC stations.

BMW-branded DCFC unit, SAE Combo only, 24 kW

The SAE Combo flavor of DCFC (compatible with the BMW i3) first appeared in Atlanta in late 2014, with a single dual-standard cabinet at a Georgia Power testing facility, unfortunately accessible during weekday business hours only. In January a second SAE Combo unit appeared at BMW NA's offices, however that BMW-branded unit only offers 24 kW peak power. Obviously with just these two i3-compatible DCFC stations, one with limited access and the other offering low power, and both located in the same side of town, they were of limited utility to i3 owners.

It was not until this week that the true potential of the BMW i3 was realized in the north Georgia market, with a wave of SAE Combo DCFC sites going online.

Georgia Power's first dual-standard DCFC station

Following nearly a year of planning and construction, regional electric utility Georgia Power has now launched their network of DCFC stations, which are DUAL-STANDARD. These new stations offer both CHAdeMO and SAE Combo plugs, and thus are able to charge every DCFC-capable EV in the U.S. (even the Model S via Tesla's new adapter).  Georgia Power's DCFC sites deliver 50 kW and will offer Level 2 charging stations as well. Their network launched in May with pilot stations at 11 Georgia Power locations in 4 cities, and will expand to a total of 60 stations statewide by the end of 2016. The first wave of stations launched temporarily with only CHAdeMO capability, but on June 2nd Georgia Power finally delivered on their promise and brought their first dual-standard station online, with more expected this week.

This is just the first wave. Georgia Power plans to spend 2015 installing 25 more stations at locations around the state, and then another 25 in 2016. Some will be in metro areas, essentially serving commuters, but some will be installed along interstate corridors, serving those EV owners eager to stretch the legs of their new car. Since every one of these stations will offer dual-standard DCFC, these stations will support ALL EV owners. Atlanta-area BMW i3 owners have been straining at the leash for these stations to finally go online, and the day has now arrived.

Pictured at left: NRG's new dual-standard BTC hardware

But Georgia Power is not the only player in the market offering dual-standard charging.  NRG entered the Atlanta market in November 2014 with CHAdeMO-only stations, but recently has been expanding their presence with dual-standard DCFC stations made by BTC Power. Unfortunately, while these BTC stations have internal hardware that supports both CHAdeMO and SAE Combo charging, these new stations have been popping up with the SAE Combo side disabled. It is rumored that NRG (and partner Nissan) have asked BMW to chip in on the cost of these stations. If that is indeed the case, I believe it would be wise for BMW to step up and contribute to this much needed infrastructure.

Signet DCFC cabinet with Greenlots network

A similar situation is playing out with some state-funded stations. The Georgia Environmental Financing Authority (GEFA) is an arm of the state government that normally funds projects like water and sewer improvements, but in 2014 they announced a grant opportunity for GEFA-funded electric car charging stations at municipalities and educational institutions. Following a frenzied application window that reportedly lasted only hours before the funding was all used up, GEFA delivered on those grants in late 2014, and since then stations have been popping up in locations around the state, beyond metro Atlanta. Three of these locations are Athens, Augusta and Columbus, where GEFA-funded DCFC stations went online in April.  These stations launched with only CHAdeMO capability, despite the GEFA grants specifically requiring dual-standard DCFC. Indeed the Signet hardware that was physically installed did include SAE capability, with even the cord and plug installed and ready to go, but the SAE Combo plug was disabled in software (via the Greenlots activation network). Again it appears that Nissan maneuvered to have the stations installed with SAE Combo, but with that capability disabled until BMW chipped in. Local i3 owners raised this concern with BMW via a variety of methods, and in late May, these three locations saw their SAE Combo plugs quietly get enabled. The rumor now is that this solution will soon spread to similar stations that have appeared in the Carolinas, further enabling regional travel by i3 owners. BMW of North America has made no public statements about what is going on at any of these, frustrating local i3 owners.

Table comparing DCFC cabinets seen in Georgia market

Georgia now boasts EIGHT different makes of DCFC station hardware, operating on six different networks (click here for details on the station hardware now operating). Thus, the state now has one of the most heterogenous DCFC station populations in the world, exceeded only by California, and certainly Georgia can be seen as a great market to evaluate DCFC developments and test car compatibility.

All of this DCFC activity, especially the SAE Combo roll out, has delighted local BMW i3 owners, who have been chomping at the bit to go on road trips in their new cars!