Nissan Leaf
At 500 volt 120 amp charging station
Photo KDG

The 500 volt 120 amp DC charger is getting use on Voght street, the owner of this car stopped the charge at 86 percent as he said that’s” better for the battery”. He had charged up in Hope about an hour to the west of Merritt. The approximate 1/2 hour charging stop, was on his way to Salmon Arm, ” I also use the 2 hour charger at my home”

One year ago, electric vehicle drivers in British Columbia would have been hard pressed to find a public charging station to top up their battery. Today, they have access to nearly 500 electric vehicle charging stations located throughout the province: source : One year ago, electric vehicle drivers in British Columbia would have been hard pressed to find a public charging station to top up their battery. Today, they have access to nearly 500 electric vehicle charging stations located throughout the province. source: http://blog.wwf.ca/blog/2013/11/14/charging-bc/

Charging stations have a number of capacities needing more or less time and attention:

New Electric Vehicle Charging Stations

UVic’s two new electric vehicle charging stations come into operation the week of April 2nd. These level 2 (240 volt), 60 amp stations from Sun Country Highway are available for use by the campus community and guests 24/7 outside the Campus Security Building in parking lot #2. They are located in metered parking spaces for a fee of $1.50 per hour (a $.25 premium over our regular parking rates) for a maximum of 2 hours. Funding for these stations has been provided by the BC government’s Community Charging Infrastructure Project, an incentive program that has funded over 500 electric vehicle charging stations across BC. Find out more about the program at the Plug In BC website.

Also note that the province recently announced an extension of the its Clean Energy Vehicle Incentive Program which provides BC residents with up to $5,000 off the pre-tax sticker price of qualifying new battery electric cars. source: http://www.uvic.ca/sustainability/home/news/current/EV%20Charging%20Stations.php

 Editors note: The quotes  above are dated. However this week sees the  arrival of the BMW version of electric vehicle to the Vancouver market. The E1 is being sold as a mid range EV. The Province paper is reporting that it is a carbon fiber body usually only available at ” bank account breaking prices.” The BMW website is promoting a turbo charge cord as a quick and easy way to charge an EV. The cord has an adapter that can access 120 and 240 volt house wiring, Electric ranges and dryers have a 240 volt capacity, the 240 volt system depending on the amperage can increase charging conveinece  by bringing time down to about 2 hours. It appears that the cord can be brought on trips where access to friends outlets may be available. There is no free power from private homes and they are metered in the normal way. The charging net work of public access remains free to users.

Access to some charging stations may require a key fob, particularly in the US, some universities are adding 25 cents an hour to the parking fee for charge stations. Key fobs are available at a monthly rate on AV sites and a visit rate.

Sun Country, EV
Photo KDG

Sun Country Electric Hyway is the business that is most seen in operations in Canada. The roadster seen is a discontinued Telsa model, its production was taken over by the Tesla model S with a range up to near 500 kilometers. A jaguar model Ev  up to near 1.5 million is coming in the fall of 2015. the sun country website lists numbers of EV models from numbers of companies: https://suncountryhighway.ca/evfinder/

Sun country has an EV with a 1.5 liter gasoline charging engine that can be driven for hundreds of KMs and the vehicle used to run electric tools.

The Tesla model S has been involved in a couple of fires, the all aluminum body is flammable at high heat.

Watch out for proprietary adapters especially on Tesla roadsters, The Sun Country network 30 to 90 amp chargers are only accessible with an adapter, not free, for some Tesla products.

For the record, there were 187,500 “highway vehicle fires” in the US in 2011 (the last year for which data is available), according to the National Fire Prevention Association. But there was a fire yesterday that is starting to catch some attention, and we’re pretty sure you all know why. Electric vehicle fires – whether they be in China or the US, started while moving or stopped – often become comment fodder, even when we learn after the fact that the electric part of the powertrain has nothing to do with with the blaze. source:http://green.autoblog.com/2013/10/02/tesla-model-s-fire/

Today in history: June 17th 1994

OJ Simpson is arrested for the alleged murder of his ex-wife and boyfriend, after a slow speed chase.