Introduction
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.
3 years after my first charging site review trip, I wanted to go back and see how each of the sites was doing. 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 (This site opened in November 2020)
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
Dining options include: None
Shopping options include: Mobil Convenience Store
Car-related services (windshield cleaning, air): Mobil gas station at this location.
Concentration
This is the baseline ChargePoint 2 charger site. The parking is a pull/back into configuration. 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
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 current limit is 62.5kW or 150A. For vehicles above 500V, the current limits change and they become 75A and 125A, thus making the maximum theoretical output to be 125kW (125A at 1000V). While this does not match the most powerful units on the market, it will support reasonably fast charging for one vehicle.
Summary
This site has held up reasonably well over the last 3 years. There were only a couple of issues. First, these are very early generations of these CPE250 units and the touchscreens never worked really well and the behavior is not getting better with time. The scratches in the screen also continue to make it difficult to read the screen. Second, the unit closest to the street continues months later to show offline. So, even though I was able to charge successfully, none of the data from that session has been reported through the app. Somehow, the preconditioning setting in the navigation had turned itself off, so I arrived at this location with a cold battery and thus experienced an extended charging session. While I was happy to see this site has switched to the more fair per kWh charging, when I did the comparison to the previous trip, under the old method, I would have gotten more charge for less money. 3 years from now, will visit again and keep track.
Cost and Charging Details
Visit with 2019 Kia Niro EV on 3/21/2021
Total Cost: $7.32
Total kWh: 30.75kWh
Time: 37 Minutes
Average Charge Speed: 49.86 kWh (Calculated)
Cost per kWh: $.238 (Calculated)
Visit with 2023 Hyundai Ioniq 6 on 3/21/2024
Total Cost: $12.70
Total kWh: 36.283kWh
Time: 31 Minutes
Average Charge Speed: 70kW (Calculated)
Cost per kWh: $0.35
(Note Since this unit is listed as offline the charging session did not get uploaded to the cloud, am I am relying on the photo I took at the end of the session.)
Questions/Comments:
DanTheEVMan@gmail.com
No comments:
Post a Comment