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Sun Country Highway Advances in Washington State!

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Greetings everyone! After a long series of hurdles, Sun Country has obtained host locations for the 12 sponsored chargers in WA State, with several additional locations across the state yet to be announced but not far behind. For this phase of the project, the primary focus has been on creating access to one of the state's most remote yet most beautiful crown Jewels, The Olympic Peninsula. World class camping, hiking, B&B's, fishing, scuba diving and all that the Olympic Peninsula has to offer will be accessible, emission free, all the way out to Cape Flattery http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cape_Flattery, the north western most tip of the continental US! Tesla S owners can now drive all the way around the Peninsula with a relatively short additional charge mid way!

The letter below states general locations, the actual site locations will appear on the map as they go live. I appreciate the sponsors for their contributions and patience. Trent has asked that if you are a sponsor that you send him express permission to be publicaly recognized by name.

To recap, my inspiration for getting involved and helping to raise the money came from traveling via EV in Canada and using the Sun Country Highway, over a year and a half ago. I was so impressed with the simplicity of the system, you just plug in and charging begins automatically, no buttons to push, no screens to fail, no card swipes, no memberships and most importantly, no fee! The units that Sun Country uses are amongst the most robust in the industry and have a very low failure rate. The sponsored charging stations are 100 amp J1772 charging stations, capable of dual 70/80 amp continuous charging, making them universally compatible with all makes and models of EV's, from the Nissan Leaf (3.3kW/6.6kW) to the Tesla Roadster all the way up to the max of J1772 rating, the dual charger Tesla model S (20kW). They are free to use and DO NOT require a card or membership of any kind, greatly reducing their complexity and thus greatly improving their reliability. Sun Country has gone all out and included additional Tesla HPWC's at some locations!

I would like to publicaly recognize Kent Rathwell, the owner of Sun Country. Kent is an often unsung hero of the EV movement with his amazing accomplishment of creating a free charging network of over 1,000 HAL2 J1772 stations across Canada and for taking on the many challenges of creating such a network in the US, beginning with the west coast. I would also like to thank Trent Van Dyke who has shown unflagging commitment to the Sun Country vision of a reliable high speed charging network throughout the US.
While it has taken longer than originally hoped, it's great to see it taking shape! Thank You to everyone who has been involved so far!!

Onwards and Upwards,
George Whiteside, MS, EAMP

______________________________________________

On behalf of the Sun Country Highway team, I am very pleased to announce that we have identified and shipped 10 sponsored (100 - amp) charging stations. The locations include Neah Bay, Gig Harbor, Port Angeles, Gardiner, Federal Way, Seattle and Tacoma.
Note: The Tacoma and Federal Way Best Western Plus hotels have already been commissioned with sponsored chargers and are available for charging.
We have also identified four other locations in the middle - southern part of the state that are currently waiting for their install quotes, but very eager to come on board. These locations include hotels, resorts, vineyards, and bird viewing sanctuaries. As a token of our appreciation to the Washington EV community, and in recognition of your patience, we have also coupled five of these locations with wall mount Tesla stations.
I have been personally involved with the electricians on each of these properties. We're projecting that these chargers will be 'live' within the next 30 days. As they go live, we will release the physical address to you and it will also be available on the new Sun Country Highway App.
A special thank you to the people that got involved and helped with the direction of this project. Without your understanding of this process, kind words, support, and your ability to get creative, this venture may have taken even longer. It was a pleasure meeting all of you. Your emails and positive attitudes were very encouraging and were much appreciated.
Please don't hesitate to call me with any questions or comments.
Kind regards,
Trent Van Dyke
Regional Director
Sun Country Highway
61110 Brookhollow Dr.
Bend, OR 97702
828.242.8577

[email protected]
Electric Vehicle (EV) Products and Services | Sun Country Highway
 
Thank you Kent Rathwell, Trent Van Dyke and George Whiteside so very much for the chargers and the persistence to get them sponsored and installed which will open the Washington peninsula for pollution free cruising.

When I saw this previous post I just had to find & try out the two in Tacoma & Federal Way today. They are convenient and both worked perfectly. I have not had the opportunity to use a 70/80 amp charging station on my dual chargers. I used each station for about 15 minutes to allow them to spool up to their maximum charge rate. Picture below.

I plan to use these stations to cruise around our beautiful countryside.

Thanks again.




Charging_3.png
 
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I'm delighted with your progress on our behalf. I have another location for your consideration: Ilwaco, at the mouth of the Columbia. I should have thought of Sun Country right off, but my mind and body are on vacation. Here's what I posted tonight on teslamotors.com: Friends and I have rented the Captain's Quarters which happens to be next door to the Port of Ilwaco. Tessie is charging at 115V 12A in the carport and drawing lots of admiring looks, including from the Port of Ilwaco Port Manager, Guy Glenn. He mentioned that they're hoping to put in EV charging facilities, but they're expensive (as we know). I mentioned that several of us in the EV community have contributed to the installation of other municipal chargers. Any suggestion of how we can help them help us? Thanks! Kit
 
... They are free to use and DO NOT require a card or membership of any kind, greatly reducing their complexity and thus greatly improving their reliability. Sun Country has gone all out and included additional Tesla HPWC's at some locations!

I would like to publicly recognize Kent Rathwell, the owner of Sun Country.

Thanks Kent! And everyone else who brought this about. Sun Country is great and has really done it right making it simple and friendly to use. Bravo!
 
Greetings all, I have some great news, you can now travel all the way out to Neah Bay, the north western most point of the continental US and find convenient charging for your Tesla Roadster and Tesla S and even complete the loop around the Peninsula, one of WA's state's crown Jewels. These stations are dual 70/80A stations so they work with all EV's! In addition, along with the sponsored chargers that were installed along the peninsula, SCH was able to include six locations with Tesla wall Mount connectors. This was in appreciation for everyone's hard work and dedication to green the peninsula. These extra HPWC's should help free up the J1772 stations, improving access for all EV's.

I wanted to throw out the possibility of setting up a group trip out to the Peninsula to patronize some of the generous businesses who have committed considerable resources to hosting these stations... we want to show them that these charging stations will bring patrons! I figure a fun trip is in order after all this hard work and dedication! If you have not taken the hike out to Cape Flattery, it's other worldly amazing! I was thinking early spring and am willing to help organize this if there is interest do let me know by posting in this thread and I'll start working on the details.

here is a complete list of locations, the few HPC's that are listed as incomplete are likely on line by now:

Location:
Hobuck Beach Resort
3346 Makah Passage
Neah Bay, WA 98357

2 - Tesla set to 50 amps each
1 SCH-100

Location:

Hobuck Beach Resort
2726 Makah Passage
Neah Bay, WA 98357

2 - Tesla - 50 amp each
1 - SCH-100

Location:

The Cape
1510 Bayview Ave
Neah Bay, WA 98357

2 - Tesla - 30 amps each
1 - SCH-100

tacomma
best western
1 - SCH-100
2 - Tesla set to 50 amps each (still being installed)

federal way
best western
1 - SCH-100
2 - Tesla set to 50 amps each (still being installed)

this week: gig harbor
best western
1 - SCH-100

wild birds unlimited
1 - SCH-100

Olympic wineries
1 - SCH-100
2 - Tesla set to 50 amps each (still being installed)

3 additional sponsored chargers need locations, currently we have leads in western WA. if you have requests or connections with business owners who might be interested in sponsoring stations, please let me know.

Thank you to Trent Van Dyke and Kent Rathwell of Sun Country Highway for forging ahead with this project despite all the snags and hurdles! and an extra big thank you to all the sponsors who generously contributed funds to make this possible and for your patience as it was implemented!

George Whiteside, MS, EAMP
 
Great news! That Wild Birds Unlimited is not the one in Gig Harbor, though. It is in Gardiner, between Sequim Bay and Discovery Bay. Not in Gig Harbor. I'd love to do a road trip to check them out. And I'm still trying to promote charging near the mouth of the Columbia River in Washington: Ilwaco-Long Beach. Astoria, OR does have L2 and CHAdeMO charging.
 
I just called and told Sun Country that they can add the 80A J1772 chargers in Kirkland to the Sun Country Map.

I hope they add to their map the two 80A J1772 chargers the TMC members had installed in Port Angeles by the Coho Ferry dock. Those are hosted by the City of Port Angeles.

We need to get some high power stations rolling in Forks, Kalaloch, The Ocean Shores area, Hoquiam/Aberdeen, Raymond and Long Beach. Those locations should cover Olympic National Park and the entire coast to Oregon.

- - - Updated - - -

I wonder why they have the amps set so low on the other stations. Any idea?
 
Do you need any sort of membership card or payment to use the Sun Country Highway EVSEs? On an upcoming road trip I will likely be using quite a few of them.

No, these units are free but you really should consider making a donation to the Host so they can keep the unit up to date and even replace it when it stops working. A donation of $5 is very helpful...