Strange Scene At My Dealership

[Guss-E 2021]

They installed these chargers a while ago but I've never seen any activity near them. Then yesterday I am driving by and see this. Not sure what the message is here. "Hey we have electric vehicles!" or "You can charge your electric vehicle here!" (though you really can't because all of our BEV inventory is blocking the chargers).

Well there is one spot you could pull into it seems. None of those Lightnings are plugged in either. It almost looks like all the BEVs are in a time out.

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[Pioneer74]

They probably aren't even powered on. My dealership has had chargers installed for about a year and they still don't have a timetable of when the utility can get them connected.

 

[Bruboy]

 

[Bruboy]

This was the strange site at the dealership by my house yesterday

 

[Jimrpa]

A Saudi prince is a bit happier tonight

 

[Guss-E 2021]

They probably aren't even powered on. My dealership has had chargers installed for about a year and they still don't have a timetable of when the utility can get them connected.

That seems to be the primary hold up on installations. We have so much construction going on in the area. The utilities might be tied up dealing with electrical issues on those projects.

Too bad. The chargers in my post are right off a highway that leads to the beach. They are also across the street from a major grocery store. Once they show up on Plugshare, I'm sure they will see use.

 

[Maquis]

Lead times on large transformers is still a year or more. That’s holding up a lot of various projects of all types.

 

[VindictivePantz]

Lead times on large transformers is still a year or more. That’s holding up a lot of various projects of all types.

Which is why solar flares could be a bad thing. Fry enough of them in a Carrington Event situation, time to crawl into the bunker.

 

[Guss-E 2021]

Lead times on large transformers is still a year or more. That’s holding up a lot of various projects of all types.

Electricity is hard ? . Well I mean it is never as simple as just "plugging something in".

 

[ChehRob]

Why didn't Ford allow dealerships to install most of those chargers, with appropriate advertising, at convenient locations? I can't imagine every using my dealerships chargers, if I am that close to home I just charge overnight. They are not convenient for someone driving through our area, well of any highway or major road interchange.

I cannot imagine who needs them or uses them. Decent level 2 chargers would do, and in some sort of rare circumstance when I desperately need 10 miles of range to get home a lever 2 would be satisfactory. Especially if all of them could deliver 48 amps. Even then a convenient level 3 at a freeway interchange would be better.

 

[RickMachE]

Why didn't Ford allow dealerships to install most of those chargers, with appropriate advertising, at convenient locations? I can't imagine every using my dealerships chargers, if I am that close to home I just charge overnight. They are not convenient for someone driving through our area, well of any highway or major road interchange.

I cannot imagine who needs them or uses them. Decent level 2 chargers would do, and in some sort of rare circumstance when I desperately need 10 miles of range to get home a lever 2 would be satisfactory. Especially if all of them could deliver 48 amps. Even then a convenient level 3 at a freeway interchange would be better.

So you expect a dealership to put a charger on someone else's property?

Your dealership's DC fast charger is intended for non-local people, like all other DC fast chargers. Travelers, ideally in an area without a lot of DC fast chargers.

There are a lot of Ford dealerships in the middle of nowhere.

That said, the requirement for the DC fast chargers was poorly thought out (witness them dropping the program all-together). One dealership near me is located 1.7 miles from an Electrify America location, and 3.1 miles from a Tesla Magic Dock location. And both of those options are faster. It remains to be seen if they are cheaper, once the dealership's chargers get activated.

 

[ChehRob]

We live in a county just now getting over being a charger desert. A couple Ford Level 3 Ford Titus chargers about 4 miles away at the closest freeway intersection would both be a service and an effective advertisement. Ford Inc should be encouraging this sort of placement.

By the way, it is a relatively small dealership, and they were going to put in 8 Level 3s. A waste!

ps - at that interchange they might actually attract paying customers, and even make a profit. There is no way they will at the dealer location.

 

[RickMachE]

I think you must have misunderstood. Eight DC fast chargers? That's crazy.

 

[Jimrpa]

Which is why solar flares could be a bad thing. Fry enough of them in a Carrington Event situation, time to crawl into the bunker.

sigh… or you could worry about a gamma ray burst, or a supervolcano, or false vacuum decay, or a politician you don’t like winning a political office, or your HVBJB dying, or any number of things. Or, you could just enjoy life and not worry about such things ?

 

[VindictivePantz]

sigh… or you could worry about a gamma ray burst, or a supervolcano, or false vacuum decay, or a politician you don’t like winning a political office, or your HVBJB dying, or any number of things. Or, you could just enjoy life and not worry about such things ?

Oh, totally not worried. More of a commentary of our lack of capacity and ability to produce something fundamental to the grid here in the US.

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