The Jerky Outlet - Charging Station

 

Welcome to my Charging Site Reviews.  One of the main reasons I decided to start a blog was to share information with others about Electric Car Charging locations.

 

Business/Location Name	The Jerky Outlet
Address	825 E Beaver Rd, Kawkawlin, MI 48631
Network	ChargePoint
Station Details	2 linked 62.5kW Stations or 125 from one station
Cost	$0.20/min

 

On the first warm Sunday morning of March, I ventured out to start my reviews on a couple of different charge locations.  I knew one of the first areas I wanted to focus on was the I-75 corridor, especially sites that will support electric car owners in the Detroit area that might do the weekend trip ‘up north’.  My research brought me to the ChargePoint location at the Jerky Outlet in Kawkawlin, MI just north of Bay City, M (Exit 168 on I-75 for Beaver Rd). 

The chargers are at a Mobil gas station, which is basically the only thing worth stopping for at this exit.  This stop is about 120 miles from both downtown Detroit and also Gaylord, MI making it a good middle stop for charging in both directions.

 Accessibility

This station is in the southeast corner of the gas station parking lot; directly off the highway if you are traveling southbound, and just west past the overpass if you are headed northbound.  The two ChargePoint chargers are easy to spot as you approach the gas station.  Since these chargers were placed in the corner of the parking lot closest to the road, it is very unlikely that a car that was not charging would park in these spaces.  However, since the parking is “nose in”, there’s no pull-through parking for anyone pulling a trailer.

 Amenities

There’s not much to speak of regarding amenities at this stop.  Visiting here would likely be for a restroom (which was very clean) or a charging break.  As the title of the post implies, it is a Jerky Outlet, so those excited about jerky will find ample options.  They have a cooler of refrigerated jerky and cheeses available for purchase.  I chose the Canadian Maple Elk Jerky and Colorado Smoked Beef.

The store also carries some very limited hot food options, like pizza or sandwiches, but that’s it.  There are no fast food or other dining options at this exit.  So my advice is if you want to sit and eat while you charge, plan ahead!  Window washing, air for tires and trash cans are all within the same parking lot. 

I observed there were no overhead coverings for the chargers, so they could easily become icy or blocked by snow in the wintertime.

Concentration

I didn’t feel two chargers were enough for this site.  On a main expressway like I-75, and at a convenient halfway point, there should be more chargers available.  This site has room to expand and I hope they do add more in the future.  The current space available could add 2 more chargers, and possibly more on other parts of the parking lot.

Location

Overall, I do think this is a great location for a charging stop.  The 120 miles from downtown Detroit means that at peak travel times, this site would be about 2 hours into a trip up north.  On the return trip, it makes for a good location to increase the charge to ensure you have enough power to get home.  As I mentioned above, the gas station is directly off the highway and the chargers are easy to spot, yet still a quick walk to the restrooms and other facilities.

Speed

These ChargePoint shared power chargers are a decent solution for now, but will quickly become strained by the next round of newer electric vehicles.  My Kia will not pull more than the 62.5 kW a single station will output unless the battery is low and the temperature is at full temperature, so for me these are good enough numbers.  However, with more vehicles like the ID.4 and Mach-E coming that can do 100kW or more charging by themselves, combined 125kW stations like this will be overloaded by just one of these cars.  If two cars try to charge at the same time, they will obviously result in having much slower charging speeds than possible.  For those reasons, I score this stop as ‘just adequate’.  I saw a strange dip in the charging curve as the battery switched from one temperature charging profile to another.  (Thanks to ChargePoint for putting graphs like this in the app, I think all the app providers should put interactive maps of your past charging sessions in their apps.)     

 Summary

I arrived at this stop with 37% battery and 86 miles remaining on the GOM (guess o’ meter).  I had averaged a tailwind-assisted 3.6 miles/kW on the drive.  With temperatures in the upper 50’s I didn’t need the heat on, so 98% of the energy was used for driving and only 2% for accessories.  When I pulled up to station #2, I plugged in and started the session by tapping my phone to the charge.  Without any issues, Elektra started charging, quickly ramping up to 53kW. 

As I neared the time to stop charging and move on, a Chevy Bolt pulled up to the charger next to me.  As the driver was setting up to charge, I left to use the restroom.  When I came back out, I was surprised to see that the Bolt wasn’t charging yet.  Since I had achieved the charge I needed, I offered to change spots with the Bolt driver.  After he made one last attempt to start charging, he agreed and we swapped spots.  Once I had confirmed he was successfully charging, I attempted to charge on station #1 but saw the same error the Bolt driver had encountered.  The session would initialize, but as soon as the car tried to draw power from the charger, it would error out.  The screen showed; “Sorry, station needs maintenance.  A fault caused charging to stop.  Please return plug and try again or use a different station.”  Little did I know, this wasn’t the only time I would see that screen this day.  I reported the error through the app and proceeded onward.

 During my brief conversation with the Bolt driver, he asked if I was activating my sessions from the ChargePoint app or using another payment method.  He didn’t like how the majority of available apps charged an minimum fee around $10 every time he charged, with some initial balance loads of up to $50.  I haven’t seen this yet, but I can confirm the ChargePoint app bills in $10 increments.   When your balance drops below $5, it will automatically charge another $10 to load into your account.  This doesn’t seem like a big deal to me at this stage of the electric car evolution, so what if ChargePoint gets to hold a couple of my dollars in between my charging sessions?  I recognize the interest they’re making now helps to pay for the infrastructure but I’m hopeful in the future when the user base is much larger, they won’t need to do this anymore.  Otherwise, I’ll be concerned about whether or not they’re a charging network company or a simply a company making money off other people’s money.

I made another payment attempt at this site using my EVgo card.  I thought the networks were cross-compatible, but neither of these stations recognized my EVgo card.  I’ll need to do more research to see if there is something I need to do to make the networks work together, if this is supposed to work at all.

My overall experience here was good, but I did find the lack of any real food choices disappointing.  I realize this isn’t a food blog, but what else is one to do while sitting in the car while it charges?  If I were to use this stop in the future, I’ll stop at an exit before this for sufficient food options. 

The overall experience was reduced by the faulty one of two chargers.  This demonstrates why there needs to be more charger units at a stop like this.  Fortunately, the previously mentioned Bolt driver arrived as I was nearing the end of my charge.  If we had arrived at the same time, one of us would have had to wait for the other to finish charging and no one wants to add extra time onto their trip.  Spoiler Alert: I saw this same charger error at my second stop of the day.  These uncertainties have made me question the reliability of the ChargePoint network thus far.  This site was acceptable but has a lot of room for improvement. 

Cost and Charging Details

Total Cost	$7.32
Total kWh	30.75
Cost per kWh	$.238 (Calculated)
Charging Time	37 Minutes
Average Charge Speed	49.86 kWh (Calculated)

 

Total Score (Max 44)	Score Percentage	Accessibility Total	Amenities Total	Concentration	Location	Speed
22	50	6	5	4	4	3

Home Charger Installation

 Getting my EVSE installed:

One of the key advantages of owning an electric car, being able to charge at home with low cost electricity.  Electric Vehicle Service Equipment(EVSE), better known as a charger, used to connect the vehicle to the electrical service for charging.  For level 1 and level 2 charging, the electronics to take the power and charge the battery are built into the car.  The EVSE simply connects the vehicle to the electrical service and lets the car know how much power it can draw.  In order to do level 2 charging at home, I need to get an EVSE installed.  Setting up a home EVSE takes at least two steps.  First you need to get the electrical service to the location that you want to install the EVSE.  Then, you need to decide which EVSE to buy.

A little about my install:

I don’t have 220V in my garage, and with a completely finished basement there is no easy way to get 220V routed there.  I do have an unused existing 50A 220V circuit to the exterior of my house.  This was originally used to support a hot tub.  My idea is to take from this existing location and extend it about 50 feet to the end of my driveway.  There I can install a post, and mount to it a standard NEMA 14-50 exterior outlet.  This way I can mount whatever EVSE I want to the post.  The post location will also allow easy access to plug into a vehicle parked at the end of the driveway.

How to find and select qualified electrician to route my electrical service:

 I started my search in several places.  I looked on Yelp for highly rated local electricians.  Then I called local car dealerships to see if they had recommended installers.  The dealers that knew anything about electric cars referred me to the local electric utility company.  The local electric utility company did have a nice list of companies that were offering this service, and a list of their ‘standard’ install prices.  (Since every install is going to be different, I don’t know what a ‘standard’ price covers).  Lastly, I used a service such as Home Advisor to connect with multiple options.

With all this research, I was able to come up with 7 potential companies to do the work.  Of these 3 scheduled appointments for estimates 1 to 3 weeks out in the future.  3 were able to come within 48 hours to check the project.  One company simply provided me a quote over the phone without even seeing the project.  For the 3 that came out within 48 hours, the first quote was $400 over the ‘standard’ cost average.  The second declined the project as too complicated, after I accepted deviations to make the project as simple as possible.  The third never even sent a response, even after I followed up by e-mail a couple of days later.  For the 3 companies, in the 1 to 3 week window, one was not available.  Both of the other companies came at the scheduled time and provided prompt quotes.  Both of these quotes were with $100 of the first quote I got.  In the end I decided to go with the first quote, as they seemed to best understand the project and work with my vision for location and mounting.  Install is scheduled for one month from now.  I will update this post once the work is completed

Selecting the EVSE:

My planned location for the EVSE became the primary consideration.  Since I live in a cold climate and decided to go with an outside install;  robustness to all weather conditions was at the top of my list for considerations when selecting an EVSE.  I checked Amazon reviews, watched many YouTube EVSE reviews.  Based on my research, I felt I didn’t need any fancy smart charger features, although the ability to track the amount of electricity used by the car was very tempting.  Based on my research, I opted for a Grizzl-E EVSE.  Since for my install I chose to go with a NEMA 14-50 outlet over a hardwire install, I can easily change the EVSE equipment I am using if my needs change, or I find something in the future that better matches how I am using the equipment.

Update 5/1:

Couple of updates to share:

1. The install is complete, and looks very nice. Thank you to Noonan Electrical Sevices. (https://noonanelectricalservices.com/)

2. I changed my mind on which charger to get.

    When I went to buy the Grizzl-E, I could not find the specific plug/cord combination I was looking for. I then found GoPlug (http://www.goplug.com/). Based on the very popular OpenEVSE smart charging platform, but also safety rated. I originally tried to order the 40A model, but this ended up being out of stock, and I swapped my order to the 32A model. Not a big deal since the most Elektra can charge at is 32A anyway. If I upgrade to a vehicle with faster charging in the future, I can upgrade the EVSE as well. Now, I have a smart charging platform and can track all the charging I do at home.

Welcome Home Elektra

The First Trip (Bringing the car home from the dealership)

I started my research to purchase an all-electric vehicle around June 2020. I had already been looking at all-electric options that could meet my needs, but the pandemic opened my search wider since the amount I was now driving had significantly decreased due to working from home.

I thought I had found the perfect option for me at a dealership in New Hampshire. It was the base model with very low miles. It could have been a quick deal, but I couldn’t get the dealership to call me back! (I had been watching it for a couple of months and it had been in their inventory since I started my search). The vehicle had been sitting on their lot for over 6 months but I guess they didn’t want to sell it since they never bothered acknowledging my interest until about a week ago! 

After giving up on the vehicle from New Hampshire, I expanded my search on Auto Tempest and a new vehicle popped up at a dealership in the Chicago area. This vehicle was the Premium model, and the asking price was lower than the original car. After about a week’s worth of negotiations and discussions later, I was on my way to pick up my first dive into the world of electric vehicles, Elektra as was soon to be known. 

Arrival (What's an adventure without a struggle?)

I left early in the morning to drive from the Detroit area to the Chicago area to pick up Elektra. The drive through Michigan was uneventful, but once I reached Indiana, it was evident the North Easterly wind this day was going to impact this trip as I started to face some lake effect snow.  The snow grew in intensity, as did the traffic as I drove through downtown Chicago. The snow and traffic made for a stressful 20 minutes of the drive.  As I made my way through downtown and drove out to the suburbs, the sky cleared and it turned out to be a nice, yet still cold day.

When I arrived, Elektra was not at the dealership and I was told the salesman was bringing her from a nearby Nissan dealer where they had set her up to charge. Even though I had mentioned the need for her to be fully charged many times, and had even received a confirmation text the night before, Elektra’s battery was only charged to 26%.  This clearly wasn’t going to work with my original scheduled stops I had planned on my way home. So, onto plan B. I immediately jumped on the Plug Share application to find the nearest DC fast charger, locating an EVgo fast charger about 5 miles away. The reviews didn’t give me confidence, as there had been numerous reports of this charger not working, but we had to try.
We took Elektra and another vehicle to the EVgo charger in a drug store parking lot. With the application for EVgo set-up, we plugged in, and with a swipe, Elektra started charging at 46kW.  It was going to take a while to reach the level I needed to execute my “driving home” plan.  With Elektra successfully charging, we went back to the dealership to complete the paperwork.  What I didn’t know was that EVgo limits your charging sessions to 45 minutes (one of the many reasons not to use EVgo, but more on that in a future post). Thanks to the application ecosystem (there are complaints about how many applications you need, but they are very helpful), I was alerted when the charging stopped.  Since I was in the middle of signing paperwork, the dealership sent a porter to go unplug, and then re-plug Elektra to start charging again.

Departure (Is the electric charging infrastructure up to the task?)

With the paperwork completed, the porter ended the charge on Elektra. Back at the dealership we gave her the final look over and I was off, albeit slightly delayed, on my adventure to drive this car from the Chicago area back to the Detroit area.  The first leg of the journey, I had originally planned to not stop until I was in Michigan. This first stretch would be a little over 100 miles and would give me a good introduction to how the car was going to handle the highway driving and the cold temperatures. I knew I would face some head winds and snow on this first stretch that would definitely not help the efficiency, and thus the capable range of the car.

Having already completed one DC Fast charging session, pulling into the first charger of my trip home was drama free. There was some risk, because I was going to a site with a single DC fast charger. Any problem with this charger, and I would have to come up with plan C.  Fortunately, the ChargePoint charger at the Ozinga Concrete location was working well.  Since I was already behind schedule, I didn’t take the time to document all the starting and ending charge percentages/ranges.  I plugged in, tapped my phone on the charger, and the session started smoothly.  The charging ramped up and I was near the max 48kW charging speed for this charger for the 30 minutes I was connected. No cold gating at this stop (more on this in a future post). I added 23kWh and was ready to head to my next stop. The 30-minute stop flew by as many family and friends that knew I was making this trip called to check on my progress. Also, I slowed the overall amount of energy going into the battery by turning up the heat on a 20-degree F day  to stay warm.

The second leg of my trip home, about an hour after leaving New Buffalo, MI; I arrived at my first Electrify America(EA) location in Portage, MI. This site is designed for the charger to be next to the vehicle, instead of in front, as the previous stops had been. Combine that with EA using some of the shortest and stiffest charging cables (likely due to the much higher supported charging speeds), I had to reposition Elektra a couple of times at the 350kW fast charger in order to get the cable connected successfully. Thanks to the EA application, I have a few more details on this stop. I plugged in at 34% and unplugged 45 minutes later at 77%. A total of 36kWh added, here is where I saw the highest charging speeds of the trip, at up to 55kW. That’s still not the max a Kia e-Niro can do, but not bad considering how cold it was this day.

I could have made it all the way home on this charge, but with the sun down, the temperature dropping and the wind picking up, I wanted to be safe and added a third stop. This final stop was at another Charge Point location, this time in Marshall, MI. A short 40-minute drive from the previous stop, and I was doing a quick top up of the battery.  I was only plugged in for 15 minutes, and added a measly 7 kWh, but it was enough to give me the buffer I needed to feel comfortable to get home.  Part of the reason I only stayed a short time was that this charger started at a normal 45kW, but very quickly the charging ramped down to only 25kW.  I didn’t want to stay long if I wasn’t charging fast.  I will say that this charging site was located right off the highway, and at night, I was able to spot the distinctive ChargePoint charger lights from the exit ramp.

Arriving back home (Could I complete the Journey without any issues?)

            I arrived home with Elektra showing 45 miles remaining, confirming I didn’t need the last stop.  I completed the trip of 310 miles in 5 hours and 31 minutes.  I averaged an amazing 2.9 miles per kilowatt hour, at an average temperature below 20 degrees, and with a head/cross wind of 5-10 miles per hour.  Three charging stops with no charging issues with the chargers and excellent power efficiency.  Overall, I am very happy with my decision and look forward to many adventures to come. I am excited to try out and rate many DC fast charging locations, and see how/when I can get peak charging speed for Elektra.

Introduction

Introduction

Who am I?

I’m an Electric Vehicle (EV) enthusiast from the metro Detroit area and the new owner of possibly the only Kia Niro EV, all electric SUV, in the Midwest sharing my adventures of owning an all electric vehicle in Michigan. 

What will this blog cover?

This blog will cover my research leading up to the purchase, charging trips, charger site reviews, EV News and hopefully some road trips!

Why did I choose a KIA Niro EV?

I was looking for an affordable, all-electric vehicle with good range and styling that I could keep for a long time and withstand the cold Michigan winters.

What other vehicle did I consider?

1) Tesla Model 3, or Model Y – These are too expensive, and parts and service are tied to Tesla.

2) Chevy Bolt (current gen) – These cars are too small, and I didn’t like their styling.

3) Chevy Bolt EUV – I almost waited for this one, but it would have been another 6 months at least and these are still limited by the current Bolt battery pack for range and charging speed.

4) Hyundai Kona (sister car to the Niro) – The Kona ends up being a little smaller, and again, I wasn't a fan of the styling.

5) Ford Mach-E – Like the Tesla, these are too expensive, and I don’t agree with them using the Mustang name for this vehicle.

6) Audi E-Tron – Too expensive

7) Nissan Leaf Plus – The lack of thermal management on the battery and the poor styling kept me away from this car.

8) VW ID.4 – Another EV I almost waited for. This one was also past my price point, and overall, I just don’t like the interior or exterior design of the new VW electric cars.

A little about my Kia Niro EV:

2019 Niro EV EX Premium in Soft White Pearl, with the Cold Weather Package

My wife named her “Elektra”

(Full review blog post, coming soon)

What else do I drive:

2018 Honda Accord Hybrid in Touring trim

2013 Chevrolet Camaro Convertible in 1LT trim

What resources did I use to determine the right car for me?

(All of the following have great coverage on the Kia Niro EV.)

https://www.ev-olution.ca

Europe is a bigger market for the Kia Niro EV than the USA, so many resources come from across the pond:

https://misterev.co.uk

https://www.youtube.com/c/FinlandTony/featured

What applications do I use? 

A Better Route Planner (https://abetterrouteplanner.com)

Plug Share (https://www.plugshare.com)