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Presentation: Bringing The Sun Country Electric Highway To The US!

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This came about last minute and is preliminary, make it if you can!

Bringing The Sun Country Electric Highway To The US!
Saturday, August 10th at 9:30AM
Starbucks
10214 Northeast 8th Street
Bellevue, WA 98004
Bellevue Village Center
(425) 454-0191

Meet the founder of Sun Country, Kent Rathwell, founder of Plug-In North Central Washington Jack Anderson and Plug In America's Tom Saxton to discuss plans to bring the Sun Country Highway to the US. Sun Country Highway (https://suncountryhighway.ca/) is a network of high powered J1772 chargers that can be used by every EV up to 80A (20kW's)! Kent will explain how his company managed to pull off installing a string of 1,000 high powered chargers all across Canada in less than a year and how to extend the project to the US, ideally without government financial assistance! These chargers will be free of charge for drivers to use, host sponsored and are proven to be incredibly reliable. Come to learn about the project and see how you can contribute! Kent will also be plugging the E-Mazing race, the worlds longest EV race, starting in Seattle and across Canada to the east coast, kick off is September 3rd! http://e-mazingrace.com/
 
sorry again about the last minute notice, it was a bit impromptu as a way to kick start the effort while Kent was still down from Canada, he's an extraordinary individual! His initial purpose was to come and prepare for the cross country race and since Jack and I are installing 80A chargers and fired up about Sun Country, it turned into "lets have a meeting now!" kind of thing. we will likely be there for a couple of hours, it's going to go from presentation mode to brain storming and organizing pretty quickly I'm guessing.

My inspiration comes from a trip I took up into Canada and talking with Kent, mainly the realization that we will need more than the super charging network to fill in the gaps, that high Amperage AC is much less expensive to install and very useful and can be done using J1772's so beneficial to all EV's, that "free" is the best way, eliminating failure points due to card swipes/RFID card/computer screen reader malfunctions and all the added expense of the data hook up and function of a "for fee" system etc. The 80A units are much less expensive than even the commercial 40A Blinks and Chargepoints, that difference can makes the cost of the electricity relatively negligible.

I am really hoping that we can get the snow ball rolling with donations of chargers and host sites... there are essentially no pesky contracts to sign, something that turned off a lot of potential hosts with other networks. it's a looser, more affordable, beautifully simple and fast moving approach to a relatively high speed charging network. Please come if you can! By no means will it be an alternative to DC fast chargers and Tesla Super Chargers but instead, an augmentation beyond those networks, giving folks more choices for destination charging within metro areas as well as in remote areas, beyond the main arterials.
 
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sorry again about the last minute notice, it was a bit impromptu as a way to kick start the effort while Kent was still down from Canada, he's an extraordinary individual! His initial purpose was to come and prepare for the cross country race and since Jack and I are installing 80A chargers and fired up about Sun Country, it turned into "lets have a meeting now!" kind of thing. we will likely be there for a couple of hours, it's going to go from presentation mode to brain storming and organizing pretty quickly I'm guessing.

My inspiration comes from a trip I took up into Canada and talking with Kent, mainly the realization that we will need more than the super charging network to fill in the gaps, that high Amperage AC is much less expensive to install and very useful and can be done using J1772's so beneficial to all EV's, that "free" is the best way, eliminating failure points due to card swipes/RFID card/computer screen reader malfunctions and all the added expense of the data hook up and function of a "for fee" system etc. The 80A units are much less expensive than even the commercial 40A Blinks and Chargepoints, that difference can makes the cost of the electricity relatively negligible.

I am really hoping that we can get the snow ball rolling with donations of chargers and host sites... there are essentially no pesky contracts to sign, something that turned off a lot of potential hosts with other networks. it's a looser, more affordable, beautifully simple and fast moving approach to a relatively high speed charging network. Please come if you can! By no means will it be an alternative to DC fast chargers and Tesla Super Chargers but instead, an augmentation beyond those networks, giving folks more choices for destination charging within metro areas as well as in remote areas, beyond the main arterials.

I'll be there!
 
... My inspiration comes from a trip I took up into Canada and talking with Kent, mainly the realization that we will need more than the super charging network to fill in the gaps, that high Amperage AC is much less expensive to install and very useful and can be done using J1772's so beneficial to all EV's, that "free" is the best way, eliminating failure points due to card swipes/RFID card/computer screen reader malfunctions and all the added expense of the data hook up and function of a "for fee" system etc. The 80A units are much less expensive than even the commercial 40A Blinks and Chargepoints, that difference can makes the cost of the electricity relatively negligible.

I am really hoping that we can get the snow ball rolling with donations of chargers and host sites... there are essentially no pesky contracts to sign, something that turned off a lot of potential hosts with other networks. it's a looser, more affordable, beautifully simple and fast moving approach to a relatively high speed charging network. Please come if you can! By no means will it be an alternative to DC fast chargers and Tesla Super Chargers but instead, an augmentation beyond those networks, giving folks more choices for destination charging within metro areas as well as in remote areas, beyond the main arterials.

Please keep the ball rolling, and post details as soon as you can.

I live in SW Colorado which will remain a hole in the Supercharger network for quite some time. I would love to help get some charging stations set up in my 4-Corners area of the country. Take a look at the Supercharger Map, slide the time line to the right and see why I am interested in the 4-Corners area.

BTW, how did they solve the problem of Roadsters refusing to charge from a J1772 that offers more than 70 Amps?
 
Please keep the ball rolling, and post details as soon as you can.

I live in SW Colorado which will remain a hole in the Supercharger network for quite some time.

+1

I'm in AZ, and outside the Phoenix and Tucson areas there is a dearth of charging infrastructure, and the Superchargers will not cover the Eastern part of the state until 2015 (per the map slider)...
 
a likely scenario is that 80A capable stations will be put in with circuit boards that limit the rate to be compatible with Roadsters while another solution is worked on, or that such stations will be put in at intervals that Roadsters can use while the rest provide the full 80A. 80A charging is very nice, for some reason I'm seeing 64 rated mph on the CS 100 I just installed.

Ah, so that means that they are using 70-Amp J1772 devices, and not 80-Amp J1772 devices.
 
Please keep the ball rolling, and post details as soon as you can.

I live in SW Colorado which will remain a hole in the Supercharger network for quite some time. I would love to help get some charging stations set up in my 4-Corners area of the country. Take a look at the Supercharger Map, slide the time line to the right and see why I am interested in the 4-Corners area.

A charger in Bluff, Utah would get my vote!
 
This came about last minute and is preliminary, make it if you can!

Bringing The Sun Country Electric Highway To The US!

*jaw drops*

Yes, please, ASAP, thank you Kent! Some US places which could use Sun Country 70+ amp chargers, from my extremely biased point of view:

1 - Erie, Pennsylvania
2 - Cleveland, Ohio
3 - Columbus, Ohio
5 - Syracuse, NY
6 - Rochester, NY
7 - Jamestown, NY
8 - Binghamton, NY
9 - Ithaca, NY
10 - Elmira, NY
11 - Buffalo, NY
12 - Cortland, NY

Tesla's Supercharger deployment has been particularly overlooking both upstate NY and the I-90 route and I think this would be a natural area for Sun Country, being so close to Canada and all. Though please get something in Sarnia first, 'k? :)
 
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Clipper Creek will build the CS-100 (80 amp) with a switch for Roadster to send a 70 amp pilot signal.

Everybody is happy.

Everybody?

Yeah - everybody. This is great news. One charger that works with all plug-ins, and at the max rate for each one. And built in the US with a great reliability record. We should try to put these things in everywhere.

(We should put them in every 100 miles, and then Leaf owners can put in one between each pair :)
 
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thanks for your patients folks, the full announcement should be ready for press by tonight, it's been delayed a little as we hammer out wrinkles such as a solution to the 70A vs 80A issue. A switch is possible, but I'm told would likely require delaying the WA state roll out quite a bit as a redesign is completed, certified, etc. the simplest solution looks like a software/circuit board limit to 70A while a real solution is pushed for through Tesla for the Roadster, so the stations can be upped in the future relatively easily to full 80A capacity down the line. Every effort is being made to balance the desire to move forward rapidly but with the need to find a good solution for everyone.
 
@Tony - Any word on if the switch makes it (significantly) more expensive?

No, it doesn't. It's a bone simple modification. Switch, placard for switch, wires to circuit board to adjust 1kHz pilot signal pulse wave modulation... see, simple!

- - - Updated - - -

thanks for your patients folks, the full announcement should be ready for press by tonight, it's been delayed a little as we hammer out wrinkles such as a solution to the 70A vs 80A issue. A switch is possible, but I'm told would likely require delaying the WA state roll out quite a bit as a redesign is completed, certified, etc. the simplest solution looks like a software/circuit board limit to 70A while a real solution is pushed for through Tesla for the Roadster, so the stations can be upped in the future relatively easily to full 80A capacity down the line. Every effort is being made to balance the desire to move forward rapidly but with the need to find a good solution for everyone.

Except you don't have any control over if/when will "fix" a car that they don't even build any more, and that doesn't really need fixing (there certainly is no guarantee when the car was sold that it would work above 70 amps).

Hence, the switch on the CS-100.