Love's Charging Network Rollout

[hgpayne]

One sad day I had to go to the Quartzsite Love's to charge my mother-in-laws Bolt. 4 Electrify America chargers, 3 working and one broken, and a 2 hour line for those working chargers. In our Tesla we'd use one of the 120 superchargers in Quartzsite. If in our Rivian we'd use one of the 6 RAN chargers. We travel between San Diego and Prescott frequently and I've never ever waited for a charger at any of the 3 supercharger locations or the RAN. Love's is on the south side of the freeway while the superchargers and RAN are on the north side of the freeway. Of the 120 superchargers 84 are NACS adapter ready.

I chatted with one of the F150 Lightnings in line. He did have the Lectron NACS adapter and had tried to charge at the superchargers before joining the EA line. It started OK but kept turning off. I suspect his adapter was overheating. It was 113 F outside and even though the Tesla chargers are shaded, 113 is 113.

The Love's itself was great. It had tons of snacks of course and a sandwich shop and a few tables inside to sit and eat.

Photo is of 3 Bolts occupying the working chargers. The line is still 4 cars at this time. It grows and wanes as time goes by and people finish charging. My Mother-in-law's Bolt is the middle one charging. I don't think it unusual that there would be three Bolts charging at the same time. They charge slow so each will be there a while while any other EV will come, charge for 20 minutes or so, and leave. I believe after waiting two hours for a charger we charged a full hour ourselves. Needed the juice to climb the hill to Prescott. Only 150 miles but an overall elevation gain of over 4000 feet.

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[ashnazg]

It looks like this expansion is driven by federal NEVI funding.

Does anyone else think it's kind of weird that the federal government is now funding EV charging when the most reliable and ubiquitous network was built using all private money? I think the government is pretty late to the party.

Hopefully it results in reliable, cost-effective and convenient charging, but that might be a bit optimistic seeing how the money is being doled out.

I think the point of NEVI was to help cover the areas that the private networks hadn't yet bothered with. The extra chargers thus far that have come along via funding programs has definitely expanded my motorcycle riding areas around AL / TN / GA / NC.

 

[zymolysis]

Does anyone else think it's kind of weird that the federal government is now funding EV charging when the most reliable and ubiquitous network was built using all private money?

No.
The federal government is often in the mix when extending basic services useful to the country and its people.
It gave land grants to railroads, to encourage extension across the country. It has helped keep Amtrak afloat. It covered the majority of the costs to build interstate highways. It has spent a huge amount of our blood and treasure to keep access to petroleum. [How many of our countrymen and women do you think would have died in the Middle East, were it not for oil?] It has created a strategic petroleum reserve that it has used to tamp down prices, during times when petroleum prices were soaring. It has helped expand telephone service and electric service to rural areas. It has focused a lot of resources on helping to reduce the negative effects of overuse of fossil fuels (pollution). And now it is helping to create a national EV charging infrastructure. That will save lives (and health expenditures) over time, as we convert to lower polluting forms of transportation. And it might just prevent loss of lives and property from severe storms and other effects resulting from 150 years of fossil fuel overuse.
So, no, I don't think it is weird. Do you? Really?

 

[Dirtman16]

Just posted another update regarding this rollout. Nothing earth shattering at this time. They seem to be getting a leisurely start.

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