The Adventures of Elektra, and Voltron: EVs in Michigan: Downtown

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.