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4 Corners EV Charging

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Cottonwood

Roadster#433, Model S#S37
Feb 27, 2009
5,089
184
Colorado
I have mentioned the efforts of me and a few others to put high power J1772 EVSE's in the 4 Corners area, where there seems to be an absence of plans by Tesla to put in any Superchargers.

The first of these came online today in Pagosa Springs, CO. Incredible Pagosa is the host of this site. It is a 70 Amp J1772 in downtown Pagosa, within an easy walk of restaurants, shops, and hot springs. For now, the site is in Beta test, and free while we set up a Paypal billing system and finish the permanent parking setup. When in normal operation, charging will be free for guests of Incredible Pagosa. For others, the price will be $5/hour for the 70A J1772 and $3/hour for the 14-50 that is coming. All charges will be used to pay for the equipment installation and electricity. Excess profits will used for installation of new sites or donated to charities local to the charging sites.

With a little care, it is easy to make to or from the Silverthorne, CO Supercharger to this site in Pagosa in an 85. When Salida comes online, 60's will be able to do this trip as well. Use "170 N 7th St, Pagosa Springs, CO" as the address and you will get very close. The site is 1 block north of US Hwy 160 on the west side of 7th street. See map below.

Another 70A J1772 should be on-line by Thanksgiving at Wood's High Mountain Distillery

Please try to give the 70A J1772 EVSE in Pagosa a try, and better yet, spend a day or a few at Incredible Pagosa.

First test! :biggrin: It works!!! One of the owners of Incredible Pagosa is an electrician. That is his truck. He had just finished the hookup.
Pagosa Charger-1.JPG


This setup is using a 70A ClipperCreek J1772 EVSE. When the electrician truck is not there, it will be possible to get closer. Soon there will be parking in front of the EVSE after we get a new culvert installed.
Pagosa Charger-3.JPG


The concrete was still wet while we did this first test!
Pagosa Charger-4.JPG


Here is the location when you get close. Be aware, Rosita Street is little more than a gravel alley.
Pagosa Charger-2.jpg


Here is what should be coming before Thanksgiving in Salida. The EVSE was not online, but we could not resist taking a picture. Buy a bottle of one of Wood's High Mountain Distillery Products. In my opinion, the Barrel Resting Gin is very interesting. This location is in downtown Salida, near many restaurants, coffee shops, the river, river play rentals, etc.
Salida Charging-1.JPG


Please give these EVSE's a try and let us know what you think! We welcome comments, and would love to hear about your experiences with these charging sites.
 
This is just great -- additional locations to charge up, especially in locations like this, truly allows EVs to roam free. However, you might want to also include some contact info for travelers to confirm whether the charging site is in service and/or if it will be in-use by someone at a particular date and time. This info might be useful to have for travel planning if there is only one of these in the area.
 
This is great. Any plans for Durango?

Go to Plugshare.com and take a look. There are already 6, 30A J1772's at the Transit Center near downtown Durango and its only 50 miles or so from the 70A J1772 in Pagosa.

- - - Updated - - -

Any plans in the other 3 states that make up the 4 Corners? AZ in particular has a dearth of charging north of Phoenix...

So far, this is just me feeling like the Johnny Appleseed of J1772 chargers. Would love to get some help. If you are interested, PM me.

In the mean time, I have been pondering Cortez, CO; Monticello, UT; and Goulding's Resort, near Monument Valley as possible places to reach out to next. I would love some opinions.

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The Pagosa site is on Plugshare.com with a contact phone number. Its listed as $5/hr, but is free for now while we get the parking improved and get a paypal account set up.
 
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Go to Plugshare.com and take a look. There are already 6, 30A J1772's at the Transit Center near downtown Durango and its only 50 miles or so from the 70A J1772 in Pagosa.

- - - Updated - - -



So far, this is just me feeling like the Johnny Appleseed of J1772 chargers. Would love to get some help. If you are interested, PM me.

In the mean time, I have been pondering Cortez, CO; Monticello, UT; and Goulding's Resort, near Monument Valley as possible placed to reach out to next. I would love some opinions.

=================

The Pagosa site is on Plugshare.com with a contact phone number. Its listed as $5/hr, but is free for now while we get the parking improved and get a paypal account set up.

This is all just awesome. Thanks for leading on this.
 
This is great Cottonwood! (Butch?)
Hope this keeps spreading to the underserved areas. I feel like we can get some place in Steamboat to do a similar downtown J1772.

Shhhh... Don't pull the mask off of Johnny Chargeseed. :wink:

Find an eco friendly business owner downtown, who thinks EVs are cool, with some available power in the panel, make friends, and talk up the cool factor of having some Tesla folks parked in front. Offer to pay for the EVSE and the install. HPC is cheaper; J1772 is egalitarian. I'm setting up the umbrella. 4 Corners EV Charging is now a Colorado LLC. If you want to ante up, I am happy to have you come in and join me as a member of the LLC.
 
Shhhh... Don't pull the mask off of Johnny Chargeseed. :wink:

Find an eco friendly business owner downtown, who thinks EVs are cool, with some available power in the panel, make friends, and talk up the cool factor of having some Tesla folks parked in front. Offer to pay for the EVSE and the install. HPC is cheaper; J1772 is egalitarian. I'm setting up the umbrella. 4 Corners EV Charging is now a Colorado LLC. If you want to ante up, I am happy to have you come in and join me as a member of the LLC.

I'll PM you
 
I'll PM you

And replied. Here is a reply to the stuff that I think should be public.

huntjo said:
So first of all thank you extremely much for the work you've done thus far. Secondly, I am very interested in getting this done for areas that will honestly never be supercharger- worthy. Plus I want to get some return on investment for my dang second on board charger. :biggrin:

I can pay for a full one in Steamboat (or Walden if you think that's better) but I honestly don't go there very often because of work (haven't even been able to break away to try out our superchargers yet!). I think a place downtown makes tons of sense and it shouldn't be a hard sell. I went up there in the spring and didn't think to ask around, but will definitely propose the idea next time I head that way.

Is it reasonable to say 1500- 2000 for an EVSE install? Or should I expect more? I only have a14-50 in my garage.

My goals for 4-Corners EV Charging are:
  1. Put in higher power, level 2, EVSE equipment into places where Superchargers aren't coming for a while, if ever. Higher power is important to get 50+ mph charging rates so that charge times can be somewhat reasonable. For example, the difference between waiting for 2 hours instead of 4 hours on some of my trips are huge.
  2. Put the EVSE's in locations that give you something to do. Restaurants, Shopping, Coffee Shops go a long way to passing some charge time. Its way better to go have lunch, grab a cup of coffee, stroll the town, etc., than sit at the picnic table at an RV park that may have some WiFi.
  3. Have a hope to get paid back for the equipment, perhaps roll funds forward for more installs, and maybe even make a small profit. If there are not places to do new installs and the money rolls in, donate excess profits into the communities involved. These EVSE's are not free to install.
The high-power, faster-charge rate means 70 or 80 Amp J1772 EVSE's or 80 Amp HPWC's. J1772's are more egalitarian, support Roadsters, and are a slightly easier sell to a business hosting the EVSE, but HPC's are cheaper, and in reality, the majority of long-range EVs out there now are Tesla Model S's. For my first installs, there was a nice opportunity to buy some closeout, 70A, J1772's from ClipperCreek for $1,395 each. These are the units going into Pagosa and Salida. I do not think that they are available any longer.

I now have a Colorado LLC for the project, have bought 3 of the 70A, ClipperCreek J1772's, have a checking account for the LLC and am setting up the Paypal, etc stuff. 4-Corners EV Charging LLC

The deal that I have with the business owners in Pagosa and Salida is:
  1. The LLC is purchasing the equipment and paying for the install.
  2. They pay for the electricity for now, but if it gets to be of note, we will work on the LLC paying them back for the cost of electricity.
  3. The charge is $5/hr for 70 or 80 Amp service. All payments are via Paypal and by the honor system, or direct to the business owners. The LLC maintains and manages the Paypal account.
  4. Its free for customers of the host businesses.
So far the costs have been and future cost estimates are:
  • Pagosa Springs — Incredible Pagosa — $1,395 for the EVSE and $1,000 for a culvert to make the parking work. The owner is an electrician and did the install for free, and the town is putting in the culvert. The town had staff and equipment to fix this problem intersection, but no budget for parts; buying the culvert made the deal work for everyone. Amazing how these deals go, but a total of $2,395.
  • Salida — Wood's High Mountain Distillery — $1,395 for the EVSE and $1,800 for the electrical install for a total of $3,195.
  • Future install estimates — $1,200 for an 80-Amp HPC plus $1,800 install is $3,000 for Model S's and X's only, or $2,195 for a 75-Amp ClipperCreek CS-100 EVSE plus $1,800 install for $3,995 that serves most EV's including Roadsters.
  • US Income Tax Credit — I believe that the 30% EVSE Install Credit on US Federal Income tax should apply to all of this (except maybe the culvert cost).

As you can see, it will take a while to pay back the costs of putting in this equipment, but I figure its worth a try. This is an experiment. I am happy to work with others at any level from figuring if it makes sense for you to invest, become a member of the LLC, and put equipment in your favorite spots as part of the LLC; to you just taking these ideas and making them work in your locale under your own umbrella.
 
Awesome work, Cottonwood. I'll be one of the first to use the Salida EVSE when it comes on line. I'm trying to think of some other spots that make sense for Front Range S owners wanting to venture beyond the planned Supercharger network, over and above those you've already mentioned. Taos is 172 miles from Salida, for instance, and makes Santa Fe and Albuquerque doable without having to drive I-25.
 
Any info on the Farmington supercharger?

Here is the main thread: Farmington, NM Supercharger

Looks like they are just getting to the permit stage. From the article, "... An official press release detailing the location will be jointly issued by Tesla, the property owner, and Four Corners Economic Development will likely be released within the next two weeks... " When the location is announced, I will probably take a drive down to take a look.

I welcome the Supercharger to the 'hood, and look forward to the connections between this Supercharger, Pagosa, Salida, and Silvethorne! Take a look at this map: Farmington, NM to Silverthorne, CO - Google Maps

Farmington to Silverthorne is 334 miles with two nicely spaced stops in Pagosa and Salida with things to do and 50 mph charging. An hour or so in each of Pagosa and Salida, and the trip is a done deal! Looks like a pretty nice route to me.... :wink:
 
To that individual who recently sent me a PM, I got this message when I tried to reply:

... has exceeded their stored private messages quota and cannot accept further messages until they clear some space.
:eek:

Please delete some messages and PM me that you have done so, so that I may reply.
 
With my little foray into putting in some J1772 chargers, I have learned that one of the biggest problems is finding dedicated parking. This can many times be more of an issue than getting the donor site with electricity.

In Pagosa Springs, the town wants to put more of a little stream under ground in a culvert and improve a problematic corner. They have staff and equipment, but no budget to buy the culvert. We want parking places, and if the culvert goes in, it creates a spot for two great parking spaces that can be used for the 70-Amp J1772 EVSE. Steve who is part owner Incredible Pagosa put this deal together and then found the low cost culvert supplier in Greeley, CO. The culvert people had a truck going down to Pueblo anyway and he coordinated taking some scrap metal to Pueblo and then bringing the culvert back. Did I mention this is a 30' long by 5' diameter culvert? :cool:

Sometimes it is pretty crazy what it takes to swing these deals. I am just doing a couple of local EVSE's. We should all be thankful to the major effort that Tesla is putting out to install the amazing Supercharger infrastructure! :smile:

Dedicated parking will soon improve at the 70-Amp J1772 at 165 N 7th St, Pagosa Springs, CO... :biggrin:

Pagosa-Culvert.jpg
 
The culvert is almost in. That is my Model S getting a last charge before heading back to Boulder yesterday. The city found an unknown gas line when digging for the smaller culvert and had to go deeper. Details... Anyway the backfill should be done soon and Steve from Incredible Pagosa will put in a couple of nice clean parking spaces in front of the 70 Amp J1772.

Culvert.JPG
 
Repeated from Farmington, NM Supercharger - Page 4 for continuity on this thread:

@ModelS4Taos - Great suggestions in Taos. Thanks! I my try to do a scouting trip done there in early 2014 and maybe take a few turns at the little ski hill there. If you are in town, maybe we can meet face-to-face.

Salida, CO - After a very long wait, the electrician called this morning and said that he will be doing the install next week. We will see, but there is hope it will be up and running soon.