Future Nissan Leaf owners are not happy about the price of Charger Installations

AutoBlogGreen recently published a scathing article on how pissed off future Nissan Leaf customers are with AeroVironment's quotes for home charger installations.  See Future Leaf owners revolt over AeroVironment's outrageous charger installation quotes.  Given that I am one of those future Nissan Leaf owners...and an installer of EVSE,,,I thought I'd weigh in on this.

I've read most the comments about charging on the "My Nissan Leaf" and the negative comments are mostly about the estimates, not the AVI product...since it hasn't been released yet.  No one seems to have a big problem with AVI's $800 price for the charger (which is cheap when you consider the J1772 plug is about $400 now)...but they have a hard time being roped into one vendor to install a simple device. 

The higher price is likely because of two reasons:

1. Every installation is custom.  Because of this, it always comes down to the Estimator to estimate the job properly...and s/he's influenced by their own experience, margin requirements, complexity of job, and unknowns of what's behind the wall or in the circuits that they don't know about (no one tells us about the grow lights! :-).
2. Two additional vendors in the supply chain that might be marking up the installation - AVI and Nissan.  Nothing weird here, but the more middlemen you have in the value chain, the higher the price.

Most of the readers love the Leviton product since they can have any electrician install an outlet...and then just plug in the Leviton Level II into the outlet once they get it.  This puts the customer back in the driver's seat on price...and I can certainly respect that.

I just went through the long vetting process for being an AeroVironment Installer for the Electrical Contractor I work for (www.Palmer-Electric.com).  They asked a lot of questions and had us price out several scenarios to ensure we quoted correctly - they even pushed back on some prices we had for certain materials.  In the end, we got the contract...but we turned it down.  Mostly because of their strict non-compete clause and that the product has not seen the light-of-day yet.  I'm sure they'll deliver, but I'd much rather bet on Coulomb since they've got a very well engineered product that has an installed base. 

Coulomb's CT500 product is targeted for OEMs, Light Commercial, and Homes.  For many people buying an EVSE for home, it may be overkill, as they won't benefit by a Smart Charger that is aware of Time Of Use rates or care about features like getting a Text message when charging is done.  The CT500 is more like the iPhone from a design perspective...and the basic Level II chargers are more like your standard cell phone: both get the job done, but one offers more features.

Everyone in this space is a pioneer.  From what I saw of AeroVironment, they attempted to control their pricing of installs, but they are building a brand new business and mistakes will be made.  I'm glad that websites like My Nissan Leaf are around to shed some light on the problems and solutions.

Personally, I'm waiting on a company to deliver an EVSE that I can install in the ceiling of my garage...so I can pull it down like a drop light.  That gets rid of the worst thing about charging an EV...the cord.  PS: yes, I know about wireless charging.

Evoscape: Cleanly Cutting Grass in Winter Park

One of my favorite fun facts to tell people about EVs is that if you must have a car, switching to an EV is the most significant way for you to reduce your personal greenhouse gas emissions.

So if that's true, then dumping my gas mower is an awesome idea. Why?  Two Big Reasons...

1. Small gas engines under 25 hp contribute about 16 percent of HC emissions and 21 percent of CO emissions from mobile sources nationwide!  April 2003 EPA Program Update Report  
2. Because one hour of lawn mowing with a gas-powered lawn mower produces as much pollution as driving your car for four hours.  

Amazing eh?  That's BIG pollution from a lot of small engines.

So what's a better alternative?

If you can't get rid of your lawn, then switching to cleaner lawn equipment is the next best thing.  Since this an EV inspired blog, wouldn't it be smart if there was a lawn service that used an EV to drive their clean lawn equipment around?

There is...and I just met them today.

The company is called Evoscape from Winter Park, FL.  It was dreamed up by two brothers (Jarrett and Ardis Phillips) that have owned other lawn service companies in the past.  The company has only been alive for a few months, which included 3 months for buying and configuring their equipment. 

These guys did their homework.

Their "rig" caught my eye on my walk back from lunch today and I stopped to learn more about them.  After giving me their "reused" business card...which was a cut up Morning Star Farms box of veggie burgers with their stamp and phone number on it...they gave me a tour of their VERY well thought out rig...

• The Truck: A Chrysler GEM eL XD.  They love this thing.  They can get 40 miles of range with it empty, but only 25 miles with it pulling the trailer.  The range isn't a big deal since their growing client base is just a few miles away.
• The Trailer: This is where the magic is...
• Positioned for visibility and functionality, it has three solar panels right up front.  They plan to put more on top of the trailer, but having them up front is a great marketing tool...once people stop looking at the GEM.
• Inside, they have a battery backed up power supply that charges the batteries used in their electric power tools (18V & 36V).
• The Tools:

• The mower is a converted gas mower that runs on propane (Heritage Propane did their conversion).  While I don't know how clean their mower is, a mower designed with propane in mind spews 26 percent less greenhouse gases and 60 percent less carbon monoxide than a gasoline model.
• The backpack Blower and Edger are also fueled by propane.  These were made by a California company.
• The power tools (hedge clippers, small blower, string trimmer, etc) were made by Black & Decker and Ryobi and they used Lithium Ion 18V and 36V Batteries.  They keep a few battery spares in the solar powered battery chargers inside for ready use.
• A small Kegerator that keeps a pony keg of organic beer ice cold to make up for the lack of air conditioning in the GEM.   OK, I'm kidding about the Kegerator, but it does sound like a good idea!

Their goal is to go all electric with their rig, but until battery prices come down (and energy density goes up) enough to power energy hungry devices like mowers, edgers, and blowers...they'll be using propane.

That said, I'm thinking that in 5 years, we'll see mowers competing with cars to recharge their equipment at Charging Stations.  I hope by then, the guys who started Evoscape with a dream to do lawn maintenance with a Low Carbon Footprint will be running a large operation by then.

Good luck guys, you've got a great idea!

Finally, a Commercial Charger that Captures the Cord...Thanks GE!

Today, one of the oldest companies in the world jumped into one of the newest "industries" - General Electric formally announced a commercial EVSE...The WattStation.  GE partnered with Plug Smart (a.k.a. Juice Technologies) for the charger's "Smart Grid" intelligence. 

The product is beautiful...it looks like it was designed by some ultra-creative, swiss guy...and it was!  His name is Yves Behar and his firm has designed several innovative products (see video below).

Although the design is unique and looks very functional, the best part is that it captures and stores the cord in it's base.  No other EVSE on the market that I know of does this...but every EVSE manufacturer I've talked to recognizes cord management to be significant issue.

Why?

Level 2 EVSE Cords are...

• Long: up to 25 feet (7.62 m) long by NEC Standards.  Most I've seen are about 15-18ft.
• Heavy: the diameter of the cord is about 1/2 inches (12.7 mm) - you could tow a boat with these!
• Dirty: after dragging the cord around your car a few times, the cord will not be something you want to touch.

After reliability, the biggest challenge to using an automated reel system to store the cord is how to address a twisted cable.  If the user stores the J1772 connector into it's holster and tries to retract the cord, it would be nearly impossible for the mechanism to retract the twisted cord.

GE's approach to cord management is a vertical reel which pulls in the cord after use.  This seems like a good plan since the reel is visible and minor cord tangling issues can be fixed by the user or "host" of the charging station. 

Anyway, I'm surprised and impressed that one of the oldest electrical supply companies in the world came up with a design so functional and elegant.  I'm looking forward to getting my hands on a production version soon.

Charging for Charges, the Economics of Charging EVs

To charge EVs, or not to charge...that is the question for many governments and businesses today.

To answer that question requires a good understanding of the business case of charging cars.  As I see it, the Benefits and Cost of charging EVs comes down to these key variables...

Benefits

• Financial Benefits: Revenue from charging, Tax Credits, Rebates
• Marketing Benefits: New customers, Green marketing, Employee Satisfaction
• Environmental Benefits: GHG Reduction, Oil use reduction, Help with LEED Points

Cost

• Capital Expenses: Chargers, Installation
• O&M Expenses: Energy, Dedication of Parking Space, Maintenance, Insurance (Vandalism)

For this article, I'll focus on the 2nd most popular question customers ask me:

How much can you make from charging cars? 
This depends on a few key variables, like...

• How will you charge for X minutes of power?  
• How many charging stations do you plan to deploy?
• How often will people use them?
• What are the transaction rates associated with an eCommerce transaction? 
• How much does it cost for electricity?
• Are there any subscription charges per charging station?
• How fast do you plan to charge?  Level 1 or Level 2 - You can find out how many miles an EV can go on an hour of charge here.

Charge Calculator
To make calculating all these variables simple, I created the spreadsheet below.  You can press the "Click to Edit" and enter your own assumptions in the YELLOW CELLS.  As you will soon see, you can earn some good income from charging vehicles, once the EV market matures and you have a good location.

BTW, the number one question I'm asked is: How much will it cost?...which I'll cover in future articles.

Orlando is ChargePoint America's First City to Formally Announce - 6/17/10 at 2pm

Orlando has the distinction of being the first city in ChargePoint America's grant roll-out to formally announce the plan to its citizens.  Here's the agenda...please RSVP if you plan on coming...I'll be there!

More announcements to come...Central Florida is getting hot about EVs!

Electric Vehicle Charging Station Announcement & Ribbon Cutting   June 17 2 p.m. · Orlando City Hall Plaza Please join us for the launch of the ChargePoint America program in Central Florida! ChargePoint America is an ambitious plan to bring necessary and needed public and home charging infrastructure for electric vehicles across the United States. Orlando will unveil the first installed charging station as a part of this program. Please join our electric vehicle friends, government officials and executives at Orlando City Hall Plaza as we officially plug in and charge up. · City of Orlando, Mayor Buddy Dyer · Orange County Government, Florida, Mayor Richard T. Crotty · OUC-The Reliable One Board President, Katie Porta· Coulomb Technologies Executive Vice President, Bret Sewell· NovaCharge President, Helda Rodriguez Featuring: Coulomb Technologies' ChargePoint® Networked Charging Station for Electric Vehicles / The smart fortwo electric drive RSVP by Wednesday, June 16 Click to RSVP now: Yes, I plan to attend.   About ChargePoint America The $37 million ChargePoint America program is made possible by a $15 million grant funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act through the Transportation Electrification Initiative administered by the Department of Energy. ChargePoint America will provide 4,600 public and home ChargePoint Networked Charging Stations by October 2011. For more program information, visit www.chargepointamerica.com.