Recargo's DCFC Station Contract on 101 in Central California

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paulgipe

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Recargo's California Energy Commission contract to build eight DC fast-charging stations from Buellton, California to the San Francisco Bay Area on Hwy 101 has "expired."

According to CEC staff, the contract expired after the CEC issued a stop work order on the contract.

Recargo is the parent company of PlugShare.com. The southern California company, owned by German utility subsidiary Innogy, had completed a highly rated DCFC station near Prunedale on Hwy 101. The Prunedale station has six high-power charging kiosks where drivers can pay to charge with their PlugShare app.

Hwy 101 is a major north-south corridor in California linking the Los Angeles Basin with the San Francisco Bay Area. The stretch of roadway from Buellton to Prunedale in the area of Salinas, California is a distance of nearly 200 miles. South of Paso Robles there are a series of ChargePoint stations in Santa Maria and in Buellton itself. There is one lone 24 kW ChargePoint kiosk in Paso Robles. North of Paso Robles there is no working DCFC station for 100 miles until Salinas.

Recargo's contract had included the long-awaited station in San Luis Obispo. However, Electrify America, the VW subsidiary, has built a station in nearby Pismo Beach. That EA station--like several other EA stations in Central California--is not operational. EA has also started construction on stations in Paso Robles as well as Greenfield.

EVgo has two working DCFC kiosks in San Luis Obispo and more in the Salinas area.

Innogy is a subsidiary of giant German utility RWE (Rheinisch-Westfälisches Elektrizitätswerk). The utility has put Innogy into play and the subsidiary is being sought by competing German utility e.on, formerly PreussenElektra.

Recargo's other CEC contract for DCFC stations on Hwy 101 north of San Francisco remain under discussion. Stations in this contract must be completed by the end of the first quarter 2020 unless the contract is extended to 2021.
 
Paul, thanks for the writeup and links.

Ask anyone who has ever tried to build anything and they will tell you about the difficulties of overcoming the myriad of legal and regulatory requirements. In that article Recargo acknowledged their admiration for Tesla and the other major players for their accomplishments.

I'm still waiting for the charging corridor down 101 from Salinas to San Luis Obispo with 50-mile intervals between DCFC stations... after that, how about Highway 1 down the Big Sur coast? Those 120vac and 240vac campground outlets are soooo last century!
 
JoeS said:
Paul, thanks for the writeup and links.

Ask anyone who has ever tried to build anything and they will tell you about the difficulties of overcoming the myriad of legal and regulatory requirements. In that article Recargo acknowledged their admiration for Tesla and the other major players for their accomplishments.

I'm still waiting for the charging corridor down 101 from Salinas to San Luis Obispo with 50-mile intervals between DCFC stations... after that, how about Highway 1 down the Big Sur coast? Those 120vac and 240vac campground outlets are soooo last century!

For the moment, we're all waiting for EA to fire up their stations. That will get us the 101 network. CEC says EVgo and ChargePoint are also planning 101 stations now that Recargo is out. I haven't seen any action on that. The few CP stations on 101 have been problematic. See the Plugshare comments for example.

Paul
 
The 24 kW stations (re)sold by Chargepoint had massive reliability problems. Their other stations didn't have those problems (that I know of). The CP stations on the southern portion of US-101 (Salinas and points south) were almost exclusively 24 kW stations.
 
SparkE said:
The 24 kW stations (re)sold by Chargepoint had massive reliability problems. Their other stations didn't have those problems (that I know of). The CP stations on the southern portion of US-101 (Salinas and points south) were almost exclusively 24 kW stations.

Agreed.

The one in King City has been down for a long time. I recently made a trip up the 101 only because the Bosch CP unit at Cool Hand Luke's was operating in Paso Robles. It was my plan B should I not be able to charge overnight at the Paso Robles Inn and that's just what happened.

See When it doesn't go Right--Plan B Charging of a Chevy Bolt EV.

It worked for me then and I was glad it did. It was working on the return trip too.

The unit at Kon Tiki in Pismo Beach was removed at the owners' request.

Paul
 
The unit at Cool Hand Lukes, although *branded* "Bosch" is the same ies-synergy 24 kW unit that ChargePoint sold (they have dropped it). ies-synergy is the manufacturer, and it is re-branded by many companies. (You probably know that, but I post the info here so many more will know it.)

Bosch has recently (well, not THAT recently) started selling a 25 kW unit that will also run off 240V, single phase (albeit at something around 120A draw) and not require a 3-phase 208V supply (but it will run happily off triphase). That one appears to have less problems than the ies-synergy unit.
 
FYI, I posted a somewhat related article today about the charging site status of another of the CEC grantees — EV Connect — which is building more DC charging along CA 99.

EV Connect built DC chargers at 3 of 11 CEC grant sites; scrambles to add 6 more
https://electricrevs.com/2019/09/17/ev-connect-built-dc-chargers-at-3-of-11-cec-grant-sites-scrambles-to-add-6-more/
 
Plugshare shows DCFC stations at both the south- and north-bound rest areas near Camp Roberts (near Bradley). The report says they are solar powered and not available after dark. Currently, the northbound is reported as not working.

The Plugshare note says the following:
"This is a 100% solar powered ChargePoint 50kW Fast Charger. It’s free and open to the public. As it is 100% solar, it may be off while the system recharges."
Has anyone used them?
 
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