New charging locations

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Glenn Gore

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I thought I would start a thread where people could publicly inform others about new DC Fast-Charging locations, no matter what network, EA, ChargePoint, Francis, etc etc or wherever they live. I live in Oklahoma, close to the Great Charging Desert of the eastern half of Colorado and the western half of Kansas. There are only a couple of DC fast-charging locations between I-40 and I-70, and I-25 and I-35 only J1772 locations at hotels in a very few locations. There are no Tesla Superchargers at all in this region either, and none are planned, according to Tesla’s website. I am quite happy with my Ioniq 5 but making a trip to Colorado or New Mexico currently is pretty much a no-go situation.

I’m sure there are other places around the country like this, so any news on new build-outs and new installations would be appreciated by everyone.


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Check with each state transportation department's web sites. They where suppose to provide the federal government with their plans by last week, August 1, 2022. Oklahoma is getting 66.3 million dollars to start with that is going to be spent powering up rural America.

I believe these chargers will be required to have a minimum power rating of 100 kw.

You can thank slow Joe and the rest of the Democrats for getting something done in Congress.

https://www.ksn.com/news/local/kansas-to-get-more-electric-vehicle-charging-stations/

https://www.oklahoman.com/story/new...wide-oklahoma-infrastructure-bill/6855858001/

https://www.cpr.org/2022/07/26/electric-vehicle-chargers-grant-colorado-highways/
 
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marshall said:
Check with each state transportation department's web sites. They where suppose to provide the federal government with their plans by last week, August 1, 2022. Oklahoma is getting 66.3 million dollars to start with that is going to be spent powering up rural America.

I believe these chargers will be required to have a minimum power rating of 100 kw.

You can thank slow Joe and the rest of the Democrats for getting something done in Congress.

https://www.ksn.com/news/local/kansas-to-get-more-electric-vehicle-charging-stations/

https://www.oklahoman.com/story/new...wide-oklahoma-infrastructure-bill/6855858001/

https://www.cpr.org/2022/07/26/electric-vehicle-chargers-grant-colorado-highways/
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Francis Electric has been the provider building charging locations up till now in Oklahoma. Their record is not good, most of their chargers are not capable of charging my Ioniq 5 and some of their units have been dead for more than a year. They say they are working on getting them able to charge the 5, EV 6, and other modern EV’s but they have been saying that for 8 months now.

I saw the KSN article. The western half of Kansas is a charging desert unless you are driving along I-70, where Electrify America and Tesla charging stations already exist, and are decently spaced. This new plan will add more fast chargers, yes, and that’s great, but only along I-70 and the Kansas Turnpike, which completely ignores the rest of the state. Cities such as Liberal, Garden City, Great Bend, and Dodge City have no fast chargers at all, and evidently none are planned for the foreseeable future.

This new round of funding should be designated to place new fast chargers along NON-Interstate US and state highways ONLY. The Interstate system is just fine for now, it’s the rest of the country, and in the 250-350+ mile gaps between those Interstates in this part of the country, where the money needs to be spent.


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Glenn Gore said:
Francis Electric has been the provider building charging locations up till now in Oklahoma. Their record is not good, most of their chargers are not capable of charging my Ioniq 5 and some of their units have been dead for more than a year. They say they are working on getting them able to charge the 5, EV 6, and other modern EV’s but they have been saying that for 8 months now.

I saw the KSN article. The western half of Kansas is a charging desert unless you are driving along I-70, where Electrify America and Tesla charging stations already exist, and are decently spaced. This new plan will add more fast chargers, yes, and that’s great, but only along I-70 and the Kansas Turnpike, which completely ignores the rest of the state. Cities such as Liberal, Garden City, Great Bend, and Dodge City have no fast chargers at all, and evidently none are planned for the foreseeable future.

This new round of funding should be designated to place new fast chargers along NON-Interstate US and state highways ONLY. The Interstate system is just fine for now, it’s the rest of the country, and in the 250-350+ mile gaps between those Interstates in this part of the country, where the money needs to be spent.


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I left out Colorado. There is definitely a huge need for charging infrastructure in the eastern half of Colorado, and since US 287, and US 50 have been designated as corridors to be addressed, hopefully something will happen. Right now it is a no-go situation to drive from Oklahoma City to Denver along the most direct route, or Amarillo to Denver along the “Ports to Plains” route. There are a few Level 2 chargers along the route but there huge gaps where no fast chargers exist at all.


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Glenn Gore said:
This new round of funding should be designated to place new fast chargers along NON-Interstate US and state highways ONLY. The Interstate system is just fine for now, it’s the rest of the country, and in the 250-350+ mile gaps between those Interstates in this part of the country, where the money needs to be spent.
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There are still plenty of holes in I90 and I94. So not all of the interstate highways are fine just yet.

The problem is finding enough folks to use the chargers right now along the grasslands. As such, it's hard to justify installing and maintaining them. The old chicken or the egg argument.

You're a bit late, but get involved with the placement of these fast chargers.
 
marshall said:
The information on I70 is old money and not the new NEVI money.

Oklahoma's NEVI plan
https://oklahoma.gov/content/dam/ok/en/evok/documents/Oklahoma_NEVI_Plan.pdf

Colorado's NEVI plan

https://www.codot.gov/programs/innovativemobility/assets/co_neviplan_2022_final.pdf

Kansas hasn't linked their NEVI plan yet on their web site. Send them a request for that information if interested.
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The Oklahoma plan is all about Interstate highways, nothing about US or state highways at all. Actually, the first and second years are only about building charging infrastructure along Interstates and late in the second year something might happen on other roads. Francis Electric got all the money in the Volkswagen settlement which was supposed to create a network where no one in the state lived more then 50 miles from a charger. Currently there are 2 charging locations in the entire northwest quarter of the state which includes the panhandle, and it is 120 miles between those two locations. Oh by the way, the one in Guymon, in the panhandle, has been totally broken for almost a year now, so it is actually 220 miles from the one at Woodward and the next DC fast charger to the west, located along I-25 in Trinidad. Same distance to the one at Wagon Mound, NM. Just not workable. I do not accept that supply chain and chip shortages are responsible for charging locations to be down for a year. Not when urban locations work fine all the time.

Colorado’s plan includes building 3, that’s right, 3 DC fast-charging locations in the eastern HALF of the state. One of them is already under construction, so why it is included in this new program, I don’t know.


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marshall said:
There are still plenty of holes in I90 and I94. So not all of the interstate highways are fine just yet.

The problem is finding enough folks to use the chargers right now along the grasslands. As such, it's hard to justify installing and maintaining them. The old chicken or the egg argument.

You're a bit late, but get involved with the placement of these fast chargers.
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The problem is, not all Americans drive on Interstate highways for their travel. US and state highways carry a lot of traffic but they are ignored by the charging providers for some reason. Yes travelers do sometimes head to the Interstates for their long cross-country journeys, but they first have to get TO those Interstates. Once they get to the Interstate they are fine. It’s that 150 miles from Interstate to Interstate where the problems lie, but that does not seem to be a priority for these funding initiatives. For the most part, they are just focused on adding even more charging locations along the Interstates. So in essence, people are being forced to drive the Interstates because there is no charging infrastructure along US and state highways, and this creates more traffic on those Interstate highways, wear and tear, etc.


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Here in Hawaii we don't have a lot of Interstates (bizarrely, we do have a couple, but you can't drive to California on them). But we do have plenty of state roads where people can go long distances without seeing a charger. If you look at the PlugShare map of Hawaii Island (aka the Big Island) there are long stretches that are really sparse, with almost no fast chargers anywhere. Once you get outside the 2 major towns, Hilo and Kailua-Kona, you're in trouble if your EV has limited range.
 
Bruce M. said:
Here in Hawaii we don't have a lot of Interstates (bizarrely, we do have a couple, but you can't drive to California on them). But we do have plenty of state roads where people can go long distances without seeing a charger. If you look at the PlugShare map of Hawaii Island (aka the Big Island) there are long stretches that are really sparse, with almost no fast chargers anywhere. Once you get outside the 2 major towns, Hilo and Kailua-Kona, you're in trouble if your EV has limited range.
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Well it looks like the big island is going to get some new DC chargers.

https://hidot.hawaii.gov/highways/f...tructure-NEVI-Program-SUBJECT-TO-APPROVAL.pdf
 
In the first phase all charging stations have to be within 1 mile of an interstate, so the Big Island isn't eligible. Hopefully we'll get something from the second phase.
 
Bruce M. said:
In the first phase all charging stations have to be within 1 mile of an interstate, so the Big Island isn't eligible. Hopefully we'll get something from the second phase.
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Why don't we wait to see if Hawaii's proposal is approved. I'm sure the feds know that Alaska, Hawaii, and perhaps the territories, if included, are exceptions.

After all you have an interstate highway to doesn't connect to another state.
 
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Hawaii has Interstates, just not on the Big Island. Nothing in the proposal indicates they're even asking for an exception to the 1-mile-from-an- interstate rule. We're gòing to have to wait for Phase 2.
 
Bruce M. said:
Hawaii has Interstates, just not on the Big Island. Nothing in the proposal indicates they're even asking for an exception to the 1-mile-from-an- interstate rule. We're gòing to have to wait for Phase 2.
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The folks at the Hawaii department of transportation aren't stupid. The feds know Hawaii, Alaska, and the territories, if included, have special circumstances. So again wait to see if the feds approve Hawaii's proposal.
 
They're proposing a whopping 3 locations in places where there are major gaps -- Saddle Road, Volcano and South Point. The others are in places where chargers already exist. The Saddle Road site, currently the biggest charger-less stretch -- will only be a level 2, supposedly due to grid capacity issues. At best this is a tiny step, assuming it's approved as-is.
 
The first phase of the NEVI program requires that fast charging facilities must be installed at 50-mile intervals along and withing one-mile of all interstates and designated Alternate Fuel Corridors.


see https://hidot.hawaii.gov/highways/f...tructure-NEVI-Program-SUBJECT-TO-APPROVAL.pdf

So it doesn't appear that the chargers have be located on interstate highways. If you look at the map, the highways listed to have new DC chargers installed are designated alternative fuel corridors.
 
marshall said:
The first phase of the NEVI program requires that fast charging facilities must be installed at 50-mile intervals along and withing one-mile of all interstates and designated Alternate Fuel Corridors.


see https://hidot.hawaii.gov/highways/f...tructure-NEVI-Program-SUBJECT-TO-APPROVAL.pdf

So it doesn't appear that the chargers have be located on interstate highways. If you look at the map, the highways listed to have new DC chargers installed are designated alternative fuel corridors.
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Yes, but see my post above. It's not very damn much. A start, but not remotely what's needed for large-scale EV adoption here.
 
Bruce M. said:
Yes, but see my post above. It's not very damn much. A start, but not remotely what's needed for large-scale EV adoption here.
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Volcano is listed as a new location. Oceanview is also listed.

With the exception of Saddle rd, it looks to me that you have things pretty good with new chargers.
 
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