[Paul Gipe]

​

Caltrans' District 9 office has announced that five new DC Fast Charge stations for electric vehicles have gone live. District 9 serves Inyo, Mono and eastern Kern County on the east side of the Sierra Nevada.

The DCFC stations are located along US 395 that runs north and south through the Owens Valley, and Hwy 58 that runs east and west connecting Bakersfield in the Central Valley with Barstow on the Mojave Desert.

The single kiosk stations are located at safety rest areas on eastbound and westbound portions of Hwy 58 near Boron, California, an area made famous by the 20-mule team brand of borax that's mined nearby.

Caltrans also installed single kiosk stations at safety rest areas on US 395 at Coso Junction and Division Creek. Coso Junction is between Inyokern and Lone Pine. The Division Creek station is between Independence and Big Pine.

The Coso Junction station adds welcome redundancy to the four kiosk Electrify America station nearby. There's no charging--of any kind--within 30 miles to Inyokern or 70 miles to Division Creek. Even gasoline stations are few and far between.

Caltrans has also installed a single kiosk at its District 9 office in Bishop. As at Coso Junction, there's also a four-kiosk EA station in Bishop.

Hwy 14 and US 395 provide access to winter skiing in the Sierras to Southern Californians as well as to outdoor recreation in the summer months.

Since the beginning of 2021 ChargePoint has opened a four-kiosk station in the desert town of Mojave, and a single station at the remote site of Brady's on Hwy 14. EV Connect has installed a single DCFC station at the airport in Mojave and another at the abandoned air terminal in Inyokern. EA has operated a four-kiosk station in Mojave for the past year.

Routes to the Eastern Sierra recreation centers, such as Mammoth Lakes, are now accessible to non-Tesla EVs. Previously, it was necessary to spend the night at hotel and charge on a Level 2 station to make the trip in a non-Telsa EV.

The stations in Inyokern also make Death Valley National Park accessible. The return trip still requires charging overnight in Death Valley.

Paul Gipe

 

[SparkE]

Are these also solar powered, with battery backup?

 

[Paul Gipe]

No, these are not the CP kiosks seen at Shandon and Camp Roberts. These are single 50 kW unbranded, non-networked stations with a maintenance contract with BTC (could be another vendor, but whoever built the units). They are the simplest installations possible to meet Caltrans 30-30 program. They are wheelchair accessible and this has confused people who think they've been installed backwards.

Paul

 

[FlyingMachineEV]

Does Caltrans charge a fee to use these chargers?

 

[Paul Gipe]

No. Currently they can't charge because of DOT regulations. I suspect that will change. The ones on 99 are getting a lot of use too.

 

[FlyingMachineEV]

No. Currently they can't charge because of DOT regulations. I suspect that will change. The ones on 99 are getting a lot of use too.

Thanks! Is there a Caltrans website showing all of the different Caltrans free charging stations. I thought that would be better to have rather than using PlugShare, EA, ChargePoint, EV go apps to try to find them

Update, just did some Google searches and this is the best I can find:

New Electric Vehicle Fast Chargers Now Available Along State Highways in Central California | Caltrans

Electric vehicle (EV) drivers now have more fast-charging options along state highways in Central California — including at the popular Tejon Pass Rest Area near the Los Angeles/Kern County line

dot.ca.gov

 

[Paul Gipe]

No, none that I could find. I'd used Plugshare and set the filters to DCFC free and see what happens. At most there will be 30 stations, as it's the 30-30 program.

Paul

 

[FlyingMachineEV]

I found this about the 30-30 program. I was totally unaware

https://catc.ca.gov/-/media/ctc-media/documents/tab-49-4-20-presentation-a11y.pdf

 

[Paul Gipe]

Yep, 2018 delivery date. Well they're here now and that's what counts. The ones I am interested in are finally installed. My contacts have retired in the meantime. . . And in District 9 they are single kiosk stations. That's far from ideal, but again, still better than 49 other states.

Paul

 

[SparkE]

Concerning "showing CalTrans sites" ...

There is this ("independent internet nice guy" -maintained ) google map of the CEC project, as well as the 30-30 program. Some guy maintains it, and it shows both projected and installed sites. You "uncheck" all the categories except "30-30" and it shows both the installed and "to be installed" sites. It isn't a live "this station is in use or free", but at least it shows all the locations and which have gone live.

CEC DC Fast Charge Sites - Google My Maps

Future Sites identified in CEC documents for industry standard DC fast chargers. Future CalTrans sites have also been included because they are also State funded. Recargo 15-601 grant is cancelled for non-performance.

www.google.com

Almost all of the sites in Southern California have gone live, and most of the ones most needed in Northern California (the ones on the less-travelled and less covered routes) as well. The ones on I-5 between Los Baños and Willows still need to be turned on, but that stretch is pretty well covered at this point, so I applaud their focus and priorities.

 

[SparkE]

This has nothing to do with the East Side, but looking at the CEC map I posted, it appears that Recargo has not installed a SINGLE unit of the CEC grant. (Although they did do a six-unit install in Salinas funded by the Monterey Bay Air Resources District).

 

[FlyingMachineEV]

Concerning "showing CalTrans sites" ...

There is this ("independent internet nice guy" -maintained ) google map of the CEC project, as well as the 30-30 program. Some guy maintains it, and it shows both projected and installed sites. You "uncheck" all the categories except "30-30" and it shows both the installed and "to be installed" sites. It isn't a live "this station is in use or free", but at least it shows all the locations and which have gone live.

CEC DC Fast Charge Sites - Google My Maps

Future Sites identified in CEC documents for industry standard DC fast chargers. Future CalTrans sites have also been included because they are also State funded. Recargo 15-601 grant is cancelled for non-performance.

www.google.com

Almost all of the sites in Southern California have gone live, and most of the ones most needed in Northern California (the ones on the less-travelled and less covered routes) as well. The ones on I-5 between Los Baños and Willows still need to be turned on, but that stretch is pretty well covered at this point, so I applaud their focus and priorities.

are these free charging sites in Southern California. I don’t see a way of unchecking any of the categories as suggested??

 

[SparkE]

On the left-hand side is a number of categories :

"GFO-15-601 North-South Corridors"
"GFO-15-603 Interregional Corridors"
"CalTrans "30-30"

There are boxes to the left of the names. When "unchecked" they are empty with a grey outline. When checked, they are red with a check-mark. Click on the box to toggle between checked and unchecked.

And yes, the 30-30 ones are free, as stated above. The other CEC sites are paid sites - the goal was to make travel throughout most of the state possible in a BEV. The CEC grants were to help offset the costs of installation - help solve the chicken and egg problem (people didn't buy EVs because there wasn't travel infrastructure, but nobody installed DCFCs because there weren't many EVs using them). This was initiated in 2015 and finalized in 2016, before the independent big explosion of DCFCs in 2019 and later (EA and EVgo and ChargePoint) but almost none of the CEC installs went in before 2019, and most went live in 2020 or later when they really weren't needed as much (except for the country routes, like the eastside US-395). Good idea, very slow implementation.

 

[FlyingMachineEV]

Thanks, probably on a different device but I’m not seeing anything on my iPhone. I’ll look later on my laptop. Thanks for the explanation

 

[greendave]

This was initiated in 2015 and finalized in 2016, before the independent big explosion of DCFCs in 2019 and later (EA and EVgo and ChargePoint) but almost none of the CEC installs went in before 2019, and most went live in 2020 or later when they really weren't needed as much (except for the country routes, like the eastside US-395). Good idea, very slow implementation.

Yes, on the whole this have proven rather less useful than it could have. Although I'm not sure it really would have made a huge difference in EV adoption, even if it had been on time. Most of the major corridors (US-395 aside) were covered in some fashion thanks to ChargePoint/EvGo.

Meanwhile northeast California is still pretty empty, charging-wise.

 

[SparkE]

Yes, on the whole this have proven rather less useful than it could have. Although I'm not sure it really would have made a huge difference in EV adoption, even if it had been on time. Most of the major corridors (US-395 aside) were covered in some fashion thanks to ChargePoint/EvGo.

Meanwhile northeast California is still pretty empty, charging-wise.

Actually, in 2016 US-101 N of San Francisco was pretty empty, I-5 was deserted (with only a few 25 kW chargers N of Sacramento into Oregon), I-5 south of Sac empty, US-101 S of Salinas was drivable, so long as none of the chargers were broken (until you got down to Santa Barbara), Reno might have been doable (can't remember when EVgo put in the Truckee site), impossible to drive to Vegas (until EVgo put the Baker site in June 2018), couldn't drive to Arizona either.

The coverage wasn't really all that good until (starting in) 2019. All major travel routes got massively improved by both EVgo and ChargePoint starting around then.

Concerning the NE corner of the state, I think that since they cancelled Recargo's grant on US-101, they should put DCFCs near highway crossroads / destinations up there : Oroville, Taylorsville, Chester, Susanville, Cassel, Canby, Alturas. That would open up a bunch of fishing, and Modoc / Shasta / Lassen Natl forests. J-1772 in the parks at / near park headquarter and/or lodges would be useful for those doing a daytrip and staying for 6 hours or so.

 

[Paul Gipe]

Actually, in 2016 US-101 N of San Francisco was pretty empty, I-5 was deserted (with only a few 25 kW chargers N of Sacramento into Oregon), I-5 south of Sac empty, US-101 S of Salinas was drivable, so long as none of the chargers were broken (until you got down to Santa Barbara), Reno might have been doable (can't remember when EVgo put in the Truckee site), impossible to drive to Vegas (until EVgo put the Baker site in June 2018), couldn't drive to Arizona either.

The coverage wasn't really all that good until (starting in) 2019. All major travel routes got massively improved by both EVgo and ChargePoint starting around then.

Concerning the NE corner of the state, I think that since they cancelled Recargo's grant on US-101, they should put DCFCs near highway crossroads / destinations up there : Oroville, Taylorsville, Chester, Susanville, Cassel, Canby, Alturas. That would open up a bunch of fishing, and Modoc / Shasta / Lassen Natl forests. J-1772 in the parks at / near park headquarter and/or lodges would be useful for those doing a daytrip and staying for 6 hours or so.

Agreed. While J1772s are not helpful for quick charging there almost essential at destinations for overnight charging. We now make our hotel choices based on whether they have Level 2 capabilities (Tesla or J1772). ****, we'll even settle for a reliable NEMA 14-50 (Independence Inn, Independence, CA) . I hope to write up a summary of an innovative program in Ontario Canada by a friend who put 30+ Level 2s in the hands of hotels and B&Bs in northern Ontario--within a couple of months!

Paul

 

[Paul Gipe]

EA has posted today that they are taking their Coso Junction station (Chevron) off line. There's construction in the area. The Chevron station has been demolished and they're building a new station. EA says this is temporary.

I had a poor charging experience there several days ago and on my return trip charged at the Caltrans station nearby that worked much better.

Paul