Downtown - Port Austin

 Introduction

Site review from my trip through the thumb of Michigan.

Business/Location Name	Downtown – Port Austin
Address	8861 Line Street, Port Austin MI 48467
Network	Jule
Station Details	2 Stations (150kW linked)
Cost	$1 plus $0.12 - $0.32 per minute

The Downtown – Port Austin Jule station was the 4th stop on my trip to explore the charging sites in the thumb of Michigan.  (This station opened in January 2023).  

Accessibility

This Jule site in Port Austin is located in a parking lot just off the road that follows the lake coast.  This downtown and parking area is close to M-25, allowing for a convenient stop if following this state highway route along the coastline.  The small downtown area here provides a few shopping and dining options. The EVSE placement does not allow for pull-through parking.

Amenities

Dining options include: The Cove, The White Elephant, Bank 1884 Food & Spirits, The Stock Pot, and others

Shopping options include: Tom and Jerry’s Party Store, KB Garden Supply, Arctic Glacier, 

Car-related services (windshield cleaning, air):  None

Concentration

This is a double station layout.  This station is the pull/back into configuration, which makes charging with Elektra’s front port location easy, but those with fender locations may need to stretch the cables to make the connections.  

Location

Located at the tip of the thumb this is a destination charge.  Visitors might come here for the beach or other water related activities.  This is a nice small town and great to see more charging along the coast.  This site could support a quick top up for anyone cruising the full coast of the lower peninsula.

Speed

Jule is offering a reasonable destination charge power output.  The dispenser can handle up to 165kW (165A at 1000V), but the power cabinet can provide a maximum 150kW.  For 400V architecture vehicles, these are not better than the ChargePoint units as they are both limited to 200A.  While this does not match the most powerful units on the market, it will support reasonably fast charging for vehicles at this site.  The drawback of this site is that it is a battery buffered site that charges slowly from the grid.  There is 180kWh of on-site storage to provide these high charging power levels.  If there is a line, one or two vehicles could drain the battery and then the charging speed will be limited to the approximately 12kW grid connection.

 

Summary

My GPS had some difficulty to route me to this location.  I ended up driving though the parking lot south of this location and then circling back north once I was able to spot the chargers.  If you are following M-25, these are just south on Arch St. but still not easy to spot, as you can see from the picture.  Pulling up to the right dispenser, when I got out of the vehicle, I saw the screen on the unit was showing out of service and there was damage to the cable at the connector.  With short cables and tight parking, this cable was likely pulled tight to make a connection one too many times.  The unit on the left, had the payment terminal showing ‘Cash Only’, but fortunately was set to free mode and I was able to get a good charge here for free.

What I paid for this stop:

Total Cost: $0.00

Total kWh: 20.0 kWh

Time: 18 minutes

Average Charge Speed: 66.67 kW

Cost per kWh: $0.00

Total Score (Max 44)	Score	Accessibility	Amenities	Usability
20	C	3	4	13

Citgo - Deckerville

 Introduction

Site review from my trip through the thumb of Michigan.

Business/Location Name	Citgo – Deckerville
Address	3440 Main St. Deckerville, MI 48427
Network	ChargePoint
Station Details	2 Stations (62.5kW/125kW linked)
Cost	$0.75 per minute

The Citgo – Deckerville ChargePoint station was the 3rd stop on my trip to explore the charging sites in the thumb of Michigan.  (This station opened in March 2022).  

Accessibility

This Deckerville Citgo site is located just off the main north/south road through town (Main St).  The units themselves are placed on Parrott St, but still easy to see if you are arriving from the south.  The Citgo gas station is the best local landmark.  The EVSE placement does not allow for pull-through parking.

Amenities

Dining options include: Corner Cafe, New Grounds

Shopping options include: Napa Auto Parts, Brown’s Market Place

Car-related services (windshield cleaning, air):  Citgo gas station at this location.

Concentration

This is the standard double station layout for ChargePoint.  This station is the pull/back into configuration, which makes charging with Elektra’s front port location easy, but those with fender locations may need to stretch the cables to make the connections.  

Location

This site is in the middle of the thumb, just about as close to the middle of not much as I think you will find in most places.

Speed

ChargePoint is offering a middle of the pack solution targeted for the early adoption phase.  These units can output 125kW or 200A.  When not paired, or when both are in use the power/current limit is 62.5kW or 150A.  While this does not match the most powerful units on the market, it will support reasonably fast charging for one vehicle. 

Summary

My first completely failed charging experience in quite some time.  There have been some poor visits recently, but no total failures.  Fortunately, I had expected to find this situation.  The ChargePoint app had shown this site as not available for some time, and the last PlugShare check-in’s all mentioned failed charging.  I had also called ChargePoint and confirmed during my drive.  So, why even visit?  Well, the sight of the EVSE units showing available when I arrived was strange, and even more insightful was how the electrical transformer on the site started making strange noises after the attempt to deliver power failed.  I even called DTE, the electric company responsible and reported a potential transformer problem.  This just goes to show all the things that do have to go right to make a site work.  In this case the failure to charge was neither the site hosts fault or the fault to the network operating the equipment, nor the fault of the charging equipment.

UPDATE: DTE confirmed that there was a blown fuse in the transformer and as of the publishing of this review the site is back up and operational.

What I paid for this stop:

Total Cost: 0

Total kWh: 0

Time: 0

Average Charge Speed: 0

Cost per kWh: 0

Total Score (Max 44)	Score	Accessibility	Amenities	Usability
19	D	4	4	11

TNT Equipment - Sandusky

 Introduction

Site review from my trip through the thumb of Michigan.

Business/Location Name	TNT Equipment - Sandusky
Address	800 Sanilac Rd. Sandusky, MI 48471
Network	EV Connect
Station Details	3 Stations (150kW)
Cost	$0.45 per kWh

The TNT Equipment - Sandusky EV Connect station was the 2nd stop on my trip to explore the charging sites in the thumb of Michigan.  (This station opened in October 2022).  

Accessibility

On the western edge of Sandusky, MI in the middle of the thumb, the TNT Equipment store is on M-19/M-46, Sanilac Rd.  Located on the north side of the road, the charging equipment is set closest to the road in the south east corner of the parking lot.  The fast chargers are placed first, and then the electrical equipment and the level 2 chargers are placed just beyond those.  Easy to spot and easy to get in and out of the parking lot.  The EVSE placement does not allow for pull-through parking.

Amenities

Dining options include: Subway, Taco Bell, Burger King

Shopping options include: Walmart, Family Farm & Home, Dollar Tree

Car-related services (windshield cleaning, air):  None

Concentration

The set of 3 units here outshine any other stop on this trip and given the rather remote location and likely lack of EVs to use these stations, 3 is probably a good number.  While the dispensers are set up for a vehicle to be parked beside them while charging, it is not pull through charging.  I would be surprised if there is ever a line to charge here.

Location

This is one of the more middle of the thumb sites.  It was 50 miles from Port Huron to here.  Detroit is 95 miles to the south.  Lansing is 130 miles to the southwest, and Bay City 60 miles to the west.

Approximate 150 and 200 mile ranges from this location:

Speed

EV Connect has installed some high power charging units at this location.  The power cabinets and dispensers are rated for the peak 1000V, but limited to 350A.  The three 350kW chargers here should be able to support a high turnover rate but since they do not support 500A charging, the standard 400V cars will not achieve their peak charging rates.

 

Summary

On a Saturday early afternoon, there wasn’t much activity at the TNT Equipment shop.  I would not expect to see many EVs here.  Not sure why they have the Level 2 units, except maybe for some employees.  There are 4 fast charge units here.  I pulled up to the one farthest from the road, only to realize this unit was completely powered off.  I then moved over to the next stall that I could back into.  Having identified which unit to enable in the app by reading the ID off the screen, starting the session went smoothly.  After I plugged in Elektra the power quickly ramped up the 70kW range I expected.  This speed did not maintain for the entire session, and later when I looked the speed had dropped into the 30’s.  I called EV Connect customer service and quickly found out that yes, they knew about this problem, and there were open work tickets to fix that station.  Why not indicate that there had been some reported problems on the screen and allow drivers to make a more educated decision on where to charge.  This could have cost me many valuable minutes if I had been in a hurry to charge.  Would I charge here again? Given that these are the fastest chargers in the thumb area, if I found myself in this part of the state needing to charge up quickly, this is the site I would go to purely for speed, not for location or amenities.

What I paid for this stop:

Total Cost: $7.96

Total kWh: 17.69 kWh

Time: 25 minutes

Average Charge Speed:  42.5 kW

Cost per kWh: $0.45 per kWh

Total Score (Max 44)	Score	Accessibility	Amenities	Usability
20	C	4	2	14