The Adventures of Elektra, and Voltron: EVs in Michigan: TNT Equipment

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.