Help me build a serious charging network from Los Angeles to Phoenix!

[NuclearPowered]

If Blythe doesnt work out for whatever reason, there is a Best Western just on the other side of the river near the Flying J in Ehrenberg along with a few other buisness' just east on 10. There are also quite a few private property owners along the river front that are away from the property for months at a time. You likely could 'borrow' some power from an outside outlet without anyone knowing. My family has river front property 20ish mi north of Blythe on the Ca side, if anyone is willing to detour that far, I could set up an outside outlet.

[phx182flyer]

There is also Quartzsite just up the pass into AZ. More business infrastructure there as apposed to what is around the Flying J

[Sig698]

Bump Anything new on this project?

What a timely bump! I just put in a few calls to the numbers listed on the Chiriaco Summit municipal website yesterday, and left several messages. I have an upcoming road trip to Phoenix (that I'll be making in my ICE car, sadly, due to time constraints) near the end of December and I'll be attempting to make an appointment with the brother and sister who run the town on my way there to make a proper pitch to them. Otherwise, the project is in a bit of a holding pattern until I receive my Model S HPC, which I expect will happen early next year.

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If Blythe doesnt work out for whatever reason, there is a Best Western just on the other side of the river near the Flying J in Ehrenberg along with a few other buisness' just east on 10. There are also quite a few private property owners along the river front that are away from the property for months at a time. You likely could 'borrow' some power from an outside outlet without anyone knowing. My family has river front property 20ish mi north of Blythe on the Ca side, if anyone is willing to detour that far, I could set up an outside outlet.

There are actually a fair amount of NEMA 14-50s available along the 10 as it is, however for a long distance road trip I still find them prohibitively slow. My end-game is creating a way to get from LA to Phoenix with some sort of fast charging available on the way

[napabill]

"near the end of December
I might be driving over Chiraco Summit late afternoon on December 28th in my S. Though at this point haven't decided which route from Barstow to take, I15 to I10 (238 mi) or down the Twenty Nine Palms Highway thru Yucca Valley (230 mi). Inclination is the latter as it is fewer miles, and lower speed for hypermiling easier than on Interstates. Thoughts?

[Sig698]

"near the end of December
I might be driving over Chiraco Summit late afternoon on December 28th in my S. Though at this point haven't decided which route from Barstow to take, I15 to I10 (238 mi) or down the Twenty Nine Palms Highway thru Yucca Valley (230 mi). Inclination is the latter as it is fewer miles, and lower speed for hypermiling easier than on Interstates. Thoughts?

Well, it doesn't look like my HPC will be here before the end of the year, so I wouldn't count on there being anything waiting for you in Chiriaco Summit at that point. The charging options you will have, however, are a NEMA 14-50 in La Quinta, CA (146 mi from Barstow via I15 and I10, 129 mi via 247 and 62 South) where you can get a quick(ish) top off at the La Quinta Inn that apparently quite a few roadster owners have utilized. Further down the road, there is also Voyager Haven RV park in Salome, AZ, and there is a picture of a Roadster charging there on the Recargo app. They are, however, a little bit out of the way of I10, but not prohibitively so. Their number is 928-859-4120 and it may be worth calling ahead to make sure they can accommodate you. They are 165 mi from La Quinta, or, if you're feeling like living dangerously, roughly 266 miles from Barstow via I40 (although to replenish that charge, you would have to spend pretty much an entire day at the RV Park).

I'll be updating the thread as I receive more information from Chiriaco Summit and once my HPC become available. As soon as the materials become available, I expect it will take somewhere in the neighborhood of 2-4 weeks for the charger to be usable, assuming I get the proper permissions.

[TonyWilliams]

Typical conversation: "Hi, do you want to get more business from loyal (and captive!) EV owners by installing this free charger? EV owners are connected and online and wanting to take their vehicles on trips where there are chargers" "Thanks, but we don't have any EVs around here." "Yes, but if you install this charger, people from far away can drive there and patronize your business." "OK, but we don't have any EVs around here, so I don't see how this will help".

Lots of great ideas in that post.

I was working in Fremont, California, for a US government agency trying to update emergency response information throughout the Pacific region. I called Monterey, California municipal government reps and asked them to update and confirm the landline number for their police, fire, etc.

The answer was, "Call 911". So, I would carefully explain that if I called 911 from Fremont, I would get the Fremont emergency folks, not Monterey. I don't remember how many folks I spoke, but they couldn't fathom a scenario where we might want to talk directly to their emergency response teams.

"What if a plane crashed at the airport late at night?" Answer, the ATC tower would call for help. "Well, the tower is closed from 11pm to 7am. Who would call for help then?" Answer, there wouldn't be a plane wreck because the tower was closed.

"But the airport isn't closed, just the tower. Planes still use the runway, and planes in distress may use it whether it's officially open or not." Deer in headlights.

Yeppers, classic stuff. I had less problems getting information out of Pago Pago in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.

********

I did two city council meetings in Fontana, California to install a DC CHAdeMO charger. Same exact responses that Chad got. "But, there aren't any electric cars around here". "Why would we want to have chargers so that people from out of town can use them?"

We weren't successful.

[Zapped]

I showed a some people who had very little knowledge about electric cars etc. the ReCargo iPhone app charger map.
They were amazed at the number of charging stations in California and I-5 north.
Then I showed some "motorheads" the TESLA burn out video and 0 to 60 + quarter mile video stats. They would have never believed an electric car could do that.
IMHO, it about awareness and municipalities being Open For Business. Tough sell, no doubt.

If live in a City that promotes itself as "green" and no EV charge station.
I've been putting some info / stats together and as soon as my car arrives, I'll be taking a few people for a ride to get the ball rolling.

[Sig698]

I'll be heading down to Chiriaco Summit on my way to Phoenix in about 2 weeks. I'll keep everyone posted on how it goes, but it looks promising so far!

[Kevin Sharpe]

what we learned while getting charging installed in ~200 locations...

Hotel EV Charging Station Installations

[Sig698]

Time for an Update!

I stopped by Chiriaco Summit on my way to Phoenix. I met with Margit, the owner of the town, and she was very enthusiastic about clean energy.

Ironically, the power had just gone out when we arrived. We asked if this was a regular occurrence and they said this was the first time in 4 months that it had happened, and the last time was due to someone knocking over a power line with their car. The power was restored in about an hour while we were there, although we never found out why it went out. From the way they were speaking, there don't seem to be any issues with the grid, but even when the power does go out, it seems to be restored rather quickly.

As I mentioned, everyone in the town was extremely enthusiastic about electric vehicles and clean energy. They told us they had applied for a grant to install a charger but had been turned down, so this was very serendipitous for them. It seems they are completely on board to accept the charger once we get it, and hope to build more infrastructure as well. Margit's brother, Bob, told us they were also planning on installing solar panels, but that project is still a ways away from coming to fruition.

Regarding the town itself, it had a very charming, welcoming feel. There is a "coffee shop" which is more like a small diner. I had some excellent eggs for breakfast, and they had a pretty decent variety of food to choose from, although they don't serve espresso for the coffee snobs such as myself. There is also a Fosters Freeze, convenience mart attached to the gas station, a post office, tourism center for the area (Christopher, the man who runs it, is very eager to help anyone and loves to meet new people), and a General Patton Museum with some cool vintage tanks.

Overall, I got a good impression of the place and it seems like it will be a great place to recharge. They even had a spot picked out for the charger: in a bay at their former gas station and classic car garage, making for a fun juxtaposition of technology. We also spoke about electricity costs and it seemed like they want to charge a small fee to charge up, but they only wanted to offset the electricity costs so I suggested between $5 and $10. The charger will also be accessible 24/7.

One thing the owners asked us for help with was writing letters of support for further charging grants for the town. The main points of the letter they needed were reasons why Chiriaco Summit is well suited to receiving chargers (natural halfway point between 2 major cities, the town services 1300 cars daily and is along a major highway corridor that has 22,500 cars pass through it daily) and tons of CO2 that will be taken off the road thanks to these chargers (I'll still need to run some numbers to figure out a figure for this). It would also help to mention the increasing prevalence of electric vehicles.

If other members of this forum could write similar letters as well, we could help make our voices heard and create a new electric waypoint along the 10! The letters must be hard copies and mailed to:

South Coast Air Quality Management District Governing Board
21865 Copley Drive
Diamond Bar, CA 91765

The more letters that are sent, the better! I feel very excited at the possibility of banding together as a community and not only getting the one HPWC installed, but creating real interstate infrastructure that everyone can use!

Without further ado, here are some pictures of the town!

Here is the sign at the entrance:


The planned location for the HPWC:


The Coffee Shop:


Post Office:


Panorama from the tourist center showing the charger location, Fosters Freeze/Convenience Store, and coffee shop on the right:


Panorama from the convenience store showing, from left to right, Coffee Shop, Tourist Center, Charger Location, Gas Station:


Some promising signs in front of the museum:


And the tanks!:


Hope this was a helpful summary! If anyone reading this feels inclined, PLEASE write the letters of support, it would be a great help!