[SeattleCat]

True but any improvement is an improvement plus if places make money other companies and places will hopefully do it

 

[SeattleCat]

I wonder if Starbucks is subsidizing as well......... I would DEFINITELY stop for Coffee especially during road-trips.
Not any differently than here, I notice that majority of the EA supercharges across cities are at Walmart Centers -- smart.
But if Starbucks has them, I'd definitely go for Coffee !

We went to sooooo many Walmarts on our road trip …. And they always stick them in the corner of the parking lot like they embarrassed we are there.

Alas charging stations do tend to get used as toilets a lot ….

 

[SeattleCat]

My husband might ban me from Target all together if they add charging

Or let you go when ever you want as you would be charging the car as well…

I love charging while shipping. It feels like charging time is instant.

 

[SeattleCat]

Appreciate the updates @bogiesan! Goes to show how badly coordinated this effort really is. 62KWpoles ain’t going to make much of a difference, except that we have to wait longer to charge. It would be nice to see if C/XC40 owners in these states (Utah, Idaho, Colorado, Washington) could test out some of these Volvo branded chargers.

Often 150 poles on my area end up maxing in the 60s even at ideal socs. Been well over a year since I have gotten 140s locally.

As the soc becomes less ideal (as the car charges) the difference between a 150 and a 62 decreases and ultimately becomes zero.

I will have to find the seattle poles see how well they work.

 

[SeattleCat]

Sooo I tried looking up the Starbucks charging station in seattle and have so far failed to find it.

Most places list it as seattle … there are a lot of starbies in seattle.

Could someone link a resource that allows one to find them / tell me where it is.

Thanks.

 

[SeattleCat]

I just wrote to Volvo media relations (Russell Datz) to see if they’ll/he will clue us in.

https://www.media.volvocars.com/us/en-us/media/pressreleases/303304/volvo-cars-and-starbucks-finalize-locations-and-begin-installing-chargepoint-electric-vehicle-charge

Thanks. It is off that they would not share that information upfront. Why say seattle when you could minimally have a link to the location or just list the address in line.

Makes it feel like this is a marketing ploy … still I will go with what my wife says. Never blame something on a meticulous cleverly planned plot when it can be explained by simple stupidity. In this case just really bad web design / information dissemination.

That said I hope your contact can help. Would love somewhere to use my free chargepoint dollars

 

[SeattleCat]

My guess is it’s the Starbucks HQ in Seattle! (See bold below).

With the installations of as many as 60 DC fast chargers at up to 15 Starbucks locations along a 1,350 mile route between the Colorado front range and the Starbucks Support Center (headquarters) in Seattle, Starbucks and Volvo aim to give EV drivers the freedom to move by providing familiar, comfortable and safe places to recharge their vehicles, and themselves.

I will go scout it out soon

I was assuming (I know assuming is bad) that it was not hq as (double assumption) I assumed that hq was not public.

**** 2 assumptions in one paragraph. I feel dirty.

 

[SeattleCat]

Waiting with bated breath on what your charging assessment will be. Let’s go @SeattleCat 🔥🔥

Well no actual report yet but I did find the station. Used the charge point app filtered for charge point only and after clicking on a few I found it.

It is 37 cents a minute which if you are getting 62 is approx 36 cents a kw. On further clicking I got this

2 of 4 pumps are 125 max which would make the charging cheap if at low soc.

 

[SeattleCat]

Speculation on my part, I believe the three companies will have some massive PR event/announcement but not until the corridor is completely built out, tested, vetted. ChargePoint is looking to sell lots of corporate and truck stop-style charger. Starbucks wants you to buy coffee and pastries while you suck som kW. And Volvoe wants credit for the vision. There's a downside for us in the West being the launching pad for this ex[erimental network/corridor. We get older style and smaller poles while the second generation corridor benefits from all the screwups. I need to point out that siting 4x150+kW poles is far more complicated and expensive than siting 4x62.5kW poles. Order of magnitude more money and way more permitting and zoning stuff. The 62.5kW poles might be able to tap directly into the stores' existing commercial utility service while the larger charging units will require new electrical feeders and a huge transformer, assuming a nearby substation even has the capacity.

So they did 2 x 125 + 2 x 62 here in seattle.

it says shared power. Does this mean if 4 people are there the through put is going to be worse than one person ….

 

[SeattleCat]

Wowzaa! That looks so much nicer than a regular ChargePoint dispenser I have seen. Those Volvo Starbucks logo⚡⚡

I know right. That is the snazziest charging station I have seen. Hopefully they did not spend 90% of the budget on looks!!

 

[SeattleCat]

Public charging now available through the Volvo Cars App!

www.xc40forum.com

Didn't see this thread prior to posting the above, but the La Grande, OR station is pretty snazzy, and a welcome option to the Electrify America chargers down the street.

Sweet. Hopefully these are better maintained. Went to a notoriously (in my mind) bad ea in seattle which rarely has more than 1/3 working and all 3 were dead

 

[SeattleCat]

Found myself in Broomfield CO yesterday, so I swung past the Starbucks/Volvo chargers and gave them a go.

The good news:
Two chargers do exist and are fully operational. I got 65KW on a test charge.

The bad news:
It was not free. $0.45/KW with a fee if you stay after charging is complete. FWIW, I activated the session using my ChargePoint card rather than the Volvo Cars app because my app no longer shows any charging stations. (I've had a ticket open with Volvo on that for over a month with no resolution.) I made sure the Volvo Connection is active within the Chargpoint app, but it doesn't generate any special pricing at this charger. Also, the Starbucks is in a location where there aren't enough parking spots to begin with. When I visited, the lot as full and one of the two charger spaces was occupied by an ICE vehicle.

Maybe Volvo will make good on their promise of free charging for Volvo owners once the whole route in complete.

An ice in a charge spot! Ironically if we stay in a charge spot we get fined but if an ice does it does not as it is not logged in.

I wonder if there is a punishment scheme for ice cars in ev slots in general!

Nice to know the chargers work. Were they the spiffy looking ones I saw? Prettiest darn chargers I have ever seen!

 

[SeattleCat]

Is the sticker thing something many states have?
I had always assumed the electrical plug sticking in my car as the sticker but since you said about it I realize that this would assume an officer / ticket person is as up on recognizing an ev as we are.

And the number of times people (especially a year or 2 ago) would start a conversation with “I that an ev” I guess a sticker might be needed.

I hate car stickers but would be willing to have one to promote and identify as having an ev

Thanks for the info.

 

[SeattleCat]

It would be a great opportunity if a bunch of us got together and drove from Broomfield to Seattle and test all of these Volvo Starbucks chargers after @bogiesan finishes up his online production reporting updates! 😎. Caffeinated and drunk on Starbucks while driving the nicer landscapes of CO, UT, ID, WA 🤩🔥

It would be great at if you did it for us (semi joking voice). Wish I was free in my actions then I would offer to join

I really want to go down to a Tesla super station but as they tend to be along way away from seattle and in charging hole I get worried about not being able to charge.

 

[SeattleCat]

I hear you out loud! - just expressing the fact that I would love to meet some of you that I have learnt on this EV road transformation of mine. Many of you I have learnt from and enjoy sharing and conversations with around here. Life is too short to not have a cuppa Mocha Joe with y’all my awesome amazing C40ers! 😌

One day I will be mentally well enough to just go out again without a care you will be on the list and we can geek out on our ev life

I actually love charging. My partner with me is autistic so wants to stay in the car (proving my safe ptsd bubble) and I get to chat with the other ev chargers. Normally out of 4 one of them wants to talk

Going to be strange when ev is mainstream and the enthusiasm is gone from folks

 

[SeattleCat]

ChargePoint not looking good today. CEO and CFO gone

https://finance.yahoo.com/amphtml/news/ev-charging-company-chargepoint-plunges-133424964.html

You can tell - these two awesome looking new chargers from ChargePoint/Entergy failed on me Friday (got me going with a remote charge up to 60% and than failed) with both units down on Sunday evening at 8p. Absolutely horrible! This is right off I55S/N in Ridgeland, Mississippi. When I tapped my iPhone to use my ChargePoint mobile app, it wouldn’t even recognize it. 😅

View attachment 7493
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It is aweful when they fail.
I was at a low soc when I went to a chargepoint. Good news one of the 3 chargers worked.

Bad news it was one that peaked at 9 miles an hour. Troughed at 3

Had to find a way on the way home. Don’t understand why chargers in the middle of nowhere exist that can go as low as 3-9 miles an hour!!

A shame there is not a tax penalty or other such punishment for your chargers being down more than for a short period of time.

Still one day we will have competition and then maybe we will get to gas station levels of functionality.

 

[SeattleCat]

Sure. Maybe someone can explain how Tesla built its network so fast and so powerful given these (seemingly insurmountable ?) roadblocks.

It is not fair to compare any company to Tesla for the simple reason that Tesla did not have to operate at a profit for a long time. Founded 2003 first profitable year 2020.

Amazon did something similar. Most companies have to make a profit to continue to exist.

It is not teslas fault this happened as it was a function of the market and more things than I am sure ininderstand but it is a lot easier to invest in things that will make profit if you don’t have to.

Though it would be lovely if we could have 30 stalls appear surely getting 2-4 is infinitely better than 0. With those 2-4 real data can be record on their usage. It is also a band aid while the slow wheels of government and procurement turn.

Alas there is a chicken and the egg going on. People want to see the chargers before they get the car and logically building chargers before the demand … alas peoples opinion on how many chargers there are is probably a function of their news source and some news is opposed to EVs.

It has been said it only works if most charging is done at home … that would be nice but would require government/legal change to force landlords to do it and subsidies to get people who are on the financial edge to do it. Hopefully this will happen. Maybe Seattle will one day embrace evs and force my building to make ev charging available. Even level 1 would help.

People charge at night as it is cheaper as it is off peak. Will it stay off peak ad more people charge?

I would love to see more comercial level 1 or 2 charging. Not at stations but at normal car parks. Go shopping charge slow for 30 to 60 mins. It’s not much but it adds up.

People park for work if they drive. If all those parking were slow speed chargers we would also have a win.

So many options so many hurdles for now I am happy if we have any forward momentum that we can build on. So often it seems that instead of any momentum with a problem we hit the stagnation of a stall. Let’s not do that hopefully.

 

[SeattleCat]

It is fair. There have been comments about how the grid can't supply enough electricity, seemingly a problem external to Tesla. I don't care about Tesla's lack of ICE baggage, etc. - my point is the grid is the same for everybody yet Tesla managed to overcome the supposed grid restraints. In other words, those who say the grid can't handle what Tesla did are not credible given that the Tesla network exists.

The grid is not the GRID.

Depending on where you are the grid ranges from delicate prone to brown and blackouts to quite robust. I live in the hospital zone in Seattle. Not had a blackout in … well never had one when I was awake in 26 years.

From what I have heard from civil engineers and read there are areas that are very fragile and request people to not use/limit use of ac in the summer due to the lack of capacity. I am not sure what percentage of places are like this.

Has Tesla built its big stations in more robust places that had more infrastructure and co operation by government? Are the places left more fragile?

 

[SeattleCat]

😎…it’s like a treasure hunt…we all get excited once new fast chargers 🔌 come into being!

Same here. I was disappointed the new Tesla is so far as I want to go use one. The changes are exciting :$

 

[SeattleCat]

I see these have no canopies. Oh why not? I did a road trip from the Bay Area to Olympia and got caught standing in the rain for 15 minutes trying to get an EVgo station working with the guy on the phone. In another spot the only available slot faced the rising sun and the reflection made the screen unreadable. Gas stations have canopies; EV stations should too.

And toilets and other things please. At least many EAs are near Walmarts but sometimes they are near no toilets … there might be a I have to pee theme here