Blain’s Farm and Fleet – Traverse City

Introduction

This is a site review from my trip to cover the lake shore route from the middle of the mitten northward.

Business/Location Name	Blain's Farm and Fleet
Address	210 US-31, Traverse City, MI 49685
Network	ChargePoint
Station Details	One 62.5kW Station
Cost	$0.20/minute

The second planned stop of day two on this trip was in Traverse City, MI.  This charger is installed at this general store.  The store is on US-31 making it part of this north/south corridor.

(This station opened in January 2021).  

Accessibility

This station is right along the US-31 route that follows the west coast.  The ChargePoint charger is placed right in front of the building helping to make it visible.  The spots are listed as shared usage, so they could be blocked by other cars.  Parking is “nose in”, there is no pull-through parking for anyone pulling a trailer.

Amenities

This site doesn’t have many, probably better to use one of the other Traverse City options.

Dining options include: Culver’s, The Local’s Place

Shopping options include: Blain’s Farm and Fleet

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

Concentration

This is an odd single charger site for ChargePoint.  This station is the pull/back into configuration, easy charging with Elektra’s front port location or when backing in with Voltron to charge.  Not much room for expansion, but there are other DCFC options around the city.

Location

Having additional charging options along the coast route is good for the support of drivers taking a trip around the state.  Being right on US-31 provides easy access to anyone on this route headed north or south.  From here it is about 110 miles northeast to Mackinaw City, 60 miles east to Grayling, and 135 miles south to Grand Rapids. 

50 Mile Radius:

150 to 200 Mile Range Estimate:

Speed

This single 62.5kW ChargePoint unit barely works as a destination solution, not so much for a road trip.  The 125A current limit makes this single unit not much better than the 50kW Tritium models installed elsewhere.  I couldn’t fully check the transformer at this site to ensure the power supply capabilities.

    

Summary

I arrived at this stop with 68% battery and 199 miles remaining on the GOM (guess o’ meter).  I had averaged 4.1 miles/kW on the drive.  With temperatures in the upper 50’s I didn’t need the HVAC, and the road speeds were lower, resulting in great efficiency.  

In a first in a long time, I did not successfully charge at this site.  Starting up with my ChargePoint RFID, the unit seemed to successfully talk to the car and match the voltage, but never started delivering power.  I called and they were able to reset the station, but that did not recover from the problem.  I was a little nervous having my first planned charge of the day end in failure.  Since my visit there have been multiple 800V architecture vehicles that failed to charge, but in the ChargePoint application, many other cars seem to be successfully charging.  Maybe this single unit has an issue with providing 800V class vehicles power.

I did notice that I passed a Rivian Adventure Network site at the mall on my way to this site, and there are also a couple of Red E Charge units (taken over from Blink) located downtown.  So, there are other options now and coming to provide fast charging in this area.

 

What I paid for this stop:

Total Cost: -

Total kWh: - kWh

Time: - Minutes

Average Charge Speed: - kW (Calculated)

Cost per kWh: -

I couldn’t charge at this site.

Total Score (Max 44)	Score	Accessibility	Amenities	Usability
13	E	3	2	8

Questions or Comments:

dantheevman@gmail.com

Village Market – Elk Rapids

Introduction

This is a site review from my trip to cover the lake shore route from the middle of the mitten northward.

Business/Location Name	Village Market
Address	250 Ames St, Elk Rapids, MI 49629
Network	Red E Charge
Station Details	One 160kW Dual Port EVSE
Cost	$0.45/kWh

The Village Market – Elk Rapids Red E Charge station was the first stop on day 2 of my coastal lower peninsula road trip.  Since this site was relatively close to my overnight stay I did not plan to charge here.  This site had the 3 Tritium units is very similar to the Grayling site I have reviewed previously.  

(This station opened in January 2021) [Since my visit Red E Charge updated this site to one of their Autel MaxiCharge units. This should provide better reliability than the Tritium units, but does leave the site without a ChaDeMo plug]

Accessibility

The Red E location in Elk Rapids is 0.5 miles from US-31.  Other sites in this part of Michigan have been located directly along US-31, avoiding any diversions.  This site requires you to go off the beaten path to this small grocery store.  Additionally, the units are on the opposite side of the store from the main direction of travel, thus making them more difficult to find.  The wide-open parking space is not designed for trailers but one could be managed here.  The parking is away from the main store parking so it is very unlikely these spots would be taken by anyone other than those charging. 

Amenities

There’s not much to speak of regarding amenities at this stop.

Dining options include: None

Shopping options include: Village Market

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

Concentration

The 3 DC Fast Chargers make sense for this early installation.  Those traveling and using this site will likely not face any problems with finding an available charger.  Given the speed of these units and the location, the site should be designed for adequate turnover.

Location

Having additional charging options along the coast route is good for the support of drivers taking a trip around the state.  From here it is 85 miles northeast to Mackinaw City, 20 miles southwest to Traverse City and 50 miles east to Grayling. 

50 Mile Radius:

150 to 200 Mile Range Estimate:

Speed

These Tritium DC fast charging units can do up to 50kW charging.  They have a max 500V output and max 125A current output.  This is good for the existing Bolt EV and other older EVs that have smaller battery packs and slower charge rates.  When installed just 3.5 years ago, these units might have been considered just below the highest power units, today these units barely meet the needs of a destination charger.  With a 300kVA transformer on site, there is power available to expand in the future if demand shows a need. [Updated charger in November 2024: This Autel MaxiCharger is a step up from the ChargePoint CPE 250 units populated for destination charging. The rated 160kW is achieved by using the air-cooled cables in boost mode to provide up to 400 A for short periods of time to match the charging curves of many vehicles.  Higher voltage vehicles won’t need this current boost to get these speeds.]

Summary

I arrived at this stop with 76% battery and 219 miles remaining on the GOM (guess o’ meter).  I had averaged 4.0 miles/kW on the drive.  These early sites were ahead of the most recent adoption wave and often struggled to find hosts site that would support EV charging, especially in more remote locations such as this.  I hope this site can get enough business to justify the installation.  I didn’t plug in on my visit, but it did seem that these early units were suffering some reliability issues.  In the app, only one of the 3 showed as available to charge a CCS car.  The left unit seemed to be completely offline, the middle unit showed only ChaDeMo working.  The right unit that I parked at was the only one showing as working completely.  Combine this with the recent bankruptcy by the manufacture of these units, could lead to future maintenance issues.

What I paid for this stop:

Total Cost: $ -

Total kWh: -

Time: -

Average Charge Speed: -

Cost per kWh: -

I did not charge at this location at this time.

Total Score (Max 44)	Score	Accessibility	Amenities	Usability
15	D	3	1	11

Questions or Comments:

dantheevman@gmail.com