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.
Questions or Comments:
dantheevman@gmail.com
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