Sun Country in New England

Robert.Boston · Jul 21, 2014

I had a great chat at TMC Connect with Kent Rathwell, founder & president of Sun Country Highway, and his regional director, Trent Van Dyke. Sun Country has been busy building out a network of (mostly) 100A charging stations across Canada. They are building out elsewhere now, including the US. The news from my chat: they have a Bar Harbor-to-Cape Cod route underway, including connectors back up to Canada. While it's not supercharging, it's as good as Level II charging gets and a welcome extension of infrastructure.

mitch672 · Jul 21, 2014

That's good news.. Not sure it would take more than a few, it's not that big a distance. Are they looking at installing them in Best Westerns, as they do now?

tga · Jul 21, 2014

Currently, the only one in NE is in North Branford, CT at Van Wilgen’s Garden Center. My dad shops there, and mentioned it to me a while back. I don't know how much use it's gotten. I've been meaning to ask the owner about it the next time I visit (does he drive an electric car, what motivated him, etc), and get permission to put it in plugshare.

Van Wilgens Garden Center in North Branford offers free car charging as part of its effort to help environment

I'm also curious why he went with a Sun Country unit instead of a generic CS-100 from Clipper Creek.

Robert.Boston said:
I had a great chat at TMC Connect with Kent Rathwell, founder & president of Sun Country Highway, and his regional director, Trent Van Dyke.

Not to look a gift horse in the mouth, but did they discuss their business model at all? Ie, how does anyone make money installing $2,000 charging stations and giving away electricity?

I'm guessing it's installation fees and service contracts for maintenance?

Robert.Boston · Jul 21, 2014

We did talk some about the business model. The revenue apparently comes solely (slowly?) from the sales of charging units; I'm not seeing how this works, given that they're not much more than rebadged Clipper Creek gear. My impression is that the host facility covers the power bills, not Sun Country. My further impression is that Kent relies on his other businesses to pay the bills.

ThosEM · Mar 23, 2015

Robert.Boston said:
I had a great chat at TMC Connect with Kent Rathwell, founder & president of Sun Country Highway, and his regional director, Trent Van Dyke. Sun Country has been busy building out a network of (mostly) 100A charging stations across Canada. They are building out elsewhere now, including the US. The news from my chat: they have a Bar Harbor-to-Cape Cod route underway, including connectors back up to Canada. While it's not supercharging, it's as good as Level II charging gets and a welcome extension of infrastructure.

I'm scratching my head at these chargers, trying to understand why they go to 90 and 100 A at 240V, when I know of no onboard rectifiers that go above 80 A @ 240 V, and those are in Telsa Model Ss. Are they expecting Tesla and other EVs to be retrofitted with multiple or higher power rectifiers in the future so they can take full advantage of these ratings?

Any light that can be shed on this would be much appreciated.

TexasEV · Mar 23, 2015

ThosEM said:
I'm scratching my head at these chargers, trying to understand why they go to 90 and 100 A at 240V, when I know of no onboard rectifiers that go above 80 A @ 240 V, and those are in Telsa Model Ss. Are they expecting Tesla and other EVs to be retrofitted with multiple or higher power rectifiers in the future so they can take full advantage of these ratings?

Any light that can be shed on this would be much appreciated.

The "100A" charging stations are delivering 80A. Remember continuous output is 80% of the circuit rating. Clipper Creek and some other EVSE manufacturers identify their units by the circuit it requires, not the output. The CS-100 requires a 100A circuit and has output 80A, the CS-60 requires 60A circuit and delivers 48A, etc.

RDoc · Mar 23, 2015

Sun Country has been talking about DC chargers recently, combined CHAdeMo and SAE Combo plugs as I understand it. Does anyone know if they will be doing that in their NE installations? That would be a good reason to buy a CHAdeMo adapter (and to lobby Tesla to do a SAE Combo adapter).

RiverBrick · Mar 23, 2015

For some Canadian installations they replace the default Clipper Creek cable with one that doesn't become completely rigid at 5℉ or colder.

Robert.Boston · Mar 23, 2015

RDoc said:
Sun Country has been talking about DC chargers recently, combined CHAdeMo and SAE Combo plugs as I understand it. Does anyone know if they will be doing that in their NE installations? That would be a good reason to buy a CHAdeMo adapter (and to lobby Tesla to do a SAE Combo adapter).

A good solution today is to install CHAdeMO and buy one adapter that is left with the hotel or other host. That's what Fore St Garage is doing he in Portland. SAE Combo should also be supported but, given how long it took Tesla to get the CHAdeMO adapter out, I wouldn't want to bet on that.

harry · Mar 23, 2015

I know it is hard to believe in this cynical age, but for Sun Country Highway, it was not about the money. Kent Rathwell had a clear understanding that the transformation of automotive transportation couldn't proceed without an infrastructure. Further, it was clear that it wouldn't happen anytime soon if we relied on the Feds, Tesla, or private networks who had to "sell" each of a thousand charging stations to sometimes-skeptical host locations. The basic coast to coast electrification was accomplished in eight months, and the only way to make it happen in a time frame anything like that was to give the charging stations away. Now SCH is not averse to making money, and they are in fact selling charging stations now, but when the initial infrastructure was put in place it was simply a gift to the Nation.

hj-45 · Mar 24, 2015

My family will be taking the ferry from Portland to Nova Scotia this Summer. Once there, we will be relying on the Sun Country chargers. Looks like on plugshare, some are lower amp units, but I only have the single charger anyway.

ArtInCT · Mar 24, 2015

Robert, This is indeed good news. To take full advantage of the 80A, the Model S would need dual onboard chargers, right? Also, what kind of adapter outlet will these 80 Amp chargers come with or require in order to charge a model S?

JohnQ · Mar 24, 2015

ArtInCT said:
Robert, This is indeed good news. To take full advantage of the 80A, the Model S would need dual onboard chargers, right? Also, what kind of adapter outlet will these 80 Amp chargers come with or require in order to charge a model S?

They're J1772 so just the standard adapter that comes with the car.

TexasEV · Mar 24, 2015

And if a car does not have dual chargers, it will draw 40A just like when it's plugged into a NEMA 14-50. Everyone benefits from these to some extent compared to using a typical 30A J1772.

Robert.Boston · Mar 24, 2015

The retrofit cost of the dual charger is now only $2000 (down from $3600). Worth considering if you're going to be using a lot of 80A chargepoints.

mknox · Mar 25, 2015

RiverBrick said:
For some Canadian installations they replace the default Clipper Creek cable with one that doesn't become completely rigid at 5℉ or colder.

Depends on the size of the unit. The two 100 amp SCH chargers I installed at my office have a fairly thick rubber cable that was perfectly flexible all winter down to temps as low as - 15 F or lower. At some lower power SCH units I've stopped at, the cable is thinner and more like plastic than rubber. Those can get quite stiff at lower temps.

- - - Updated - - -

Robert.Boston said:
The retrofit cost of the dual charger is now only $2000 (down from $3600). Worth considering if you're going to be using a lot of 80A chargepoints.

With all of the 90 and 100 amp SCH units in my neck of the woods, ordering the dual chargers when I purchased was a no-brainer.

- - - Updated - - -

harry said:
I know it is hard to believe in this cynical age, but for Sun Country Highway, it was not about the money. Kent Rathwell had a clear understanding that the transformation of automotive transportation couldn't proceed without an infrastructure. Further, it was clear that it wouldn't happen anytime soon if we relied on the Feds, Tesla, or private networks who had to "sell" each of a thousand charging stations to sometimes-skeptical host locations. The basic coast to coast electrification was accomplished in eight months, and the only way to make it happen in a time frame anything like that was to give the charging stations away. Now SCH is not averse to making money, and they are in fact selling charging stations now, but when the initial infrastructure was put in place it was simply a gift to the Nation.

It's hard not to be impressed with Kent and his team at Sun Country Highway. They are really in it for the right reasons, and have done a tremendous service to the EV community. When it came time for me to purchase 2 chargers for my office, I didn't even consider another vendor.

hj-45 · Mar 31, 2015

Robert.Boston said:
The retrofit cost of the dual charger is now only $2000 (down from $3600). Worth considering if you're going to be using a lot of 80A chargepoints.

This definitely now seems worth the effort. Also, I am right on the fence for upgrading to 60kw and adding superchargers. My conundrum now is whether to upgrade this car at $14k or just sell and order a new one. Tesla rep has told me there are only twenty 40kw car remaining in the fleet, so it should sell easily as the least expensive way to get into a Model S. Decisions...decisions.

Gwgan · Apr 3, 2015

FAIRFIELD INN PORTLAND MAINE MALL ANNOUNCES NEW ELECTRIC VEHICLE CHARGING STATION

Opening ceremony on April 20

Robert.Boston · Apr 3, 2015

Gwgan said:
FAIRFIELD INN PORTLAND MAINE MALL ANNOUNCES NEW ELECTRIC VEHICLE CHARGING STATION

Opening ceremony on April 20

Understandable but unfortunate:

The new EV Charging station in Scarborough, ME is open to overnight guests only.

Sun Country in New England

Model S VIN P01536

Active Member

Active Member

Model S VIN P01536

Space Weatherman

Well-Known Member

2021 Prerefresh Model S

Active Member

Model S VIN P01536

Member

Member

Always Learning

Active Member

Well-Known Member

Model S VIN P01536

Well-Known Member

Member

Almost a wagon

Model S VIN P01536

Similar threads