Mach-E in Alaska??

[ROBOHOBO]

The State of Alaska's fast charging network installation is rolling along as planned. ... You can check progress at http://www.aideaaeaprocurement.org/ and look at RFAs 21107, 21096, and 21088.

Good catch. The one year completion requirement is very encouraging - and I don't see any extensions posted yet!

We drove to Seward in the spring and couldn't find any 50A outlets for the mobile charger when we arrived. Everyone that advertised 50A RV outlets really only had 30A available. I ended up getting about 20 miles on L1 at the AirBnB overnight, which was just enough to get us back to Anchorage without stopping. Probably could've done it all on one charge if I'd kept the speed down, but it's all too close for comfort. I don't think I'll do it again until there's a fast charger or two.

I know of two MMEs in central Alaska, outside of Anchorage (known in Fairbanks as Los Angeles' most northern suburb) - my Red FE and Seekins Ford's black demo.

Ah... Seekins; breaking the website just by existing. Searching from the Mach-E page limits you to 100 miles, instead of the normal 300 from the dealer page ?‍ I guess that puts the count at around 13 cars for the state.

Sponsored

 

[Mopey]

Yep. For now, with zero public chargers, all Alaska EV trips are essentially limited to no-charge out and backs. And, if it weren’t for state intervention, it would stay that way for a very long time.

With the long distances and the small handful of EVs, none of the existing lower-48 charging networks would ever build here on their own. I hope the new state sponsored network is well maintained while we wait for more EV owners to join the fun.

Maybe the F150 Lightning will result in a significant impact on Alaska’s EV adoption.

 

[Mopey]

Surprise! As of 2 weeks ago there is a new 50kw DC fast charger at Cantwell ~midway between Anchorage and Fairbanks ( 63.44712 -148.83485). It was installed by a couple of entrepreneurs from Anchorage (Recharge Alaska), with grant funding from GVEA in Fairbanks. This is a separate DC fast charger from the state's EV network planned for 2021.

An interesting selection of photos of the installation - very Alaskan. https://www.rechargealaska.net/gallery

Kudos to Recharge Alaska for taking the considerable time and effort. GVEA is also installing a charger at their offices in Fairbanks. I'm unsure of the speed.

You'll want to bring your mobile charger and probably plot out your campground backup lvl2 charging options since this is an all or nothing DC fast charging option. There are also a couple of breweries along the way with level 2 charging options - Denali Brewing in Talkeetna and 49th State Brewing in Healey.

Time for a long overdue visit to The Double Musky for dinner, so perhaps a road trip before the snow falls. (https://www.doublemuskyinn.com/)

 

[Mopey]

Here is a bit of history that was surprising to me. Golden Valley Electric (GVEA) was driving an electric vehicle in Fairbanks 50 years ago. Who knew there was an electric AMC Hornet? Looks alone were a good reason to limit the production run to 3.

 

[ROBOHOBO]

That is exciting news! Still pushing the range for a casual day trip, but probably the most significant progress yet. It's good to see that someone is trying to build infrastructure, instead of just another bare-minimum marketing opportunity for their business (as much as I appreciate the hospitality, I'd rather just pay for a quick charge and get to where I'm going.) Their blog gives some interesting insight into the process too. It sounds like the power utilities still have some work to do before we see >25kW charging here in South-central.

It seems like there are a lot of L2 chargers around that aren't on PlugShare. Is there a better way to look these up?

Sponsored