I-5 "electric highway" (Washington State)

We are really excited about this here in the Seattle area. We have been actively working on also getting some Tesla HPC units installed in key locations between Seattle/Portland and Seattle/Vancouver BC.

We have one going in at a restaurant on I-5 between Seattle and Portland (in Centralia). Perfect location to take a lunch break for an hour. Charge your Roadster or Model S at 240 volts 70 amps while you eat, then continue on your trip.

The trip between Seattle and Portland is about 180 miles and takes about 3 hours.
So the ability to recharge 60-70 miles of range at the midpoint is really useful in Centralia.
It avoids a deep discharge cycle and allows you to arrive at your destination with plenty of range in reserve.

That's pretty exciting. Hopefully this will expand to other states in the next few years as more and more EVs come to market.

I guess until then one could always search for RV parks while planning a road trip to substitute for "official" chargers.

Is there any info on the installation cost per Level 3 charging terminal (exclusive of any real estate costs)? I see that the federal governing is giving $1.3 million to help the highway installation, but the project also seems to be part of a larger $250 million program. If it's really just $1.3 million for ten terminals, the build-out cost of the electric infrastructure is going to be really cheap. A gas station costs what -- $1 million+?

Brent said:

A gas station costs what -- $1 million+?

Click to expand...

More like 2

Hydrogen stations are 5

Brent said:

Is there any info on the installation cost per Level 3 charging terminal (exclusive of any real estate costs)? I see that the federal governing is giving $1.3 million to help the highway installation, but the project also seems to be part of a larger $250 million program. If it's really just $1.3 million for ten terminals, the build-out cost of the electric infrastructure is going to be really cheap. A gas station costs what -- $1 million+?

Click to expand...

A Nissan L3 charger starts at $17k. There are options that can bring it up considerably; and of course installation costs can overshadow that.

The larger federal program is separate--it's installing a bunch of charging stations in limited areas as a test.

Not all of WA's 10 terminals (or is that 10 locations, with more than one terminal each?) are going to be L3; some will be L2 (two were named so far).

I still have a lot of questions about this project. Where exactly are the locations? How many terminals per station, what kinds of signs, lighting, enforcement, etc? Who manages the terminals, and how will users find out if they are available and working, reserve them, check status, and pay for the charge? How are they determining L2 vs L3? Will the L2 stations offer the full 80A that J1772 allows, or be limited to 32A? Are they really going with L3 chademo despite no SAE L3 standard? Is there any way to find out more about what's going on, or give input?

I asked the WA DOT guy in charge of the project the last question in person, and he said not really, other than emailing him. I have sent him a couple of messages (in which I asked very few questions; I was more offering to help) but have not received a response.

At least I know that he's involved with the larger project to install charging stations in the Seattle metro area, and several people on that project (Dan Davids, president of Plug In America; Rich Felton of Ecotality; and Stephen Johnson of SEVA) are really familiar with EV issues, so he's definitely at least getting good input. My fingers are crossed.