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