#plugshare

The first ChargePoint charger was located inside Centre Brick #1 Parking lot, hidden back behind the dumpsters. I circled the parking lot several times, passing the Whirligig Park, before I pulled in and found it. I pulled into Wilson around 2pm and quickly found out that I had arrived during the 'food sieta,' as Big Harold's Diner had closed for the day and neither 217 Brew Works nor Heroes Sports Oyster Bar and Grill opened until 4pm. The only place that was open was across from the Amtrak station, SaYum Jamacian Deli & Ice Cream Shop. But before I wandered over there, which is very close to one of the three ChargePoint chargers not listed on Plugshare, I took a look at all the Whirligigs in the Wilson Whirligig Park, formerly known to most ECU students as Acid Park. I highly suggest you look at my photo album from this trip to see the videos of the machines in action. These are truly neat sculptures, and I wonder how difficult it would be to turn them all into electricity generating wind-powered turbines. I seriously spent about an hour just walking around the Whirligig park taking photos and talking with a couple from Pennsylvania who stopped in on their way to Cary (quite the detour) because they saw the Whirligigs on Roadside America.

After playing tourist, and seeing that the local Brewpub didn't open till 4 (and was also very close to the Centre Brick parking lot I was charging in), I decided to head over to SaYum for lunch. The food was excellent and the ice cream a good size portion, all for very reasonable prices. After I got my bite to eat, I headed across the street to find the ChargePoint by the AmTrak station so that I could get it on Plugshare. It was easy enough to locate, and then I headed over to the Police Department to find their ChargePoint. I was really surprised that all of Wilson's chargers were 24/7 accessible and in FREE to park areas, with no restrictions at all. Each EV charger had the striped lines directly in front of it, and two spaced on either side with one marked (with a sign) as EV parking only. Sadly, it didn't say "while charging," but that's OK. I don't imagine there are more than a handful of Volts who use these machines on any kind of frequent basis, only two of the four chargers had ever shown a connection according to the ChargePoint app on my phone. I finally stopped in at the City of Wilson Customer Service Center to add a photo of the charger to the PlugShare entry, and update the network to ChargePoint.

With my mission complete, and enough charge to get to Greenville, I started to wander back towards my car. I cut across some parking lots and found myself on a side street looking in the window at Art at 123 Studio. I am a sucker for an art gallery, so I walked in and was greeted by the owner, Andrea, who introduced me to two other local artists (one just so happened to be Louis Small Jr). We chatted quite a bit about the little roadtrip adventure I was on, about my car, and about how the city of Wilson has become so progressive with it's fiber internet and now free public car chargers. I'd seen the advertising, but they all reminded me of the art expo happening next weekend, and asked me to come visit again. I assured them I would, as today's adventure was a proof of concept test drive as part of a larger plan I have to take my EV to the NC coast (specially to photograph Cape Lookout before it gets its LED upgrade).

I made it back to my car, unplugged it, took out my roof rails and continued east to Farmville. I met up at The Original Barber Shop in downtown with my buddies Logan & AJ (who live in Farmville) and my Raleigh neighbor Rich (who still owns a house in Greenville). All three of them happened to bump into each other at the same barbershop. Such is small town American life! We chit chatted and caught up, since I haven't seen Logan and AJ in quite a while, and the owner of the shop took a break to check out my little electric car. After Rich got his ears lowered, we drove to his house (a mere 8 miles away) and I plugged my car into a 120v outlet to top up before the boys met up with us at the house. Part of this trip was to help Rich evaluate his semi-kitchen tear down/remodel, since he needs to sell the place. Once Logan and AJ arrived, we agreed to eat at Crave Uptown Restaurant and Bar.

Coincidentally, this was the same venue that the Drag Review was to be held at. Crave is a unique space, half restaurant and half bar/dance floor, two separate spaces in one building. It's right next to the downtown parking deck, which has two AeroVironment-made Nissan branded EV chargers donated by the Nissan dealership. My little car had a big friend to charge with at the deck: a Tesla Model X from Virginia! We plugged in and settled in at Crave, which has some of the best home made bread I've had in a while. After dinner (which was 5 stars, by the way), we wandered over to The Sojourner and I spent more than half my trip budget on bracelets, an LGBT Rainbow Windsock, and a really cool Parrot totem made of stone.  We finally wound up at Uptown Brewing Company for a beer, which was the last stop for AJ and Logan before they went home. After saying our goodbyes, Rich and I returned to Crave for yet another cocktail and to await the drag performance. Check out my album (link above) for all the photos from the 12+ performers, all previous pageant winners, that night. Greenville's drag scene is way better than Raleigh's (sorry, but it's true)! After the show ended, around 2am, my car was fully charged and we drove the 5-miles back to Rich's house for the night. I plugged back into the 120v outlet (we plugged in his Ford C-MAX Energi to recharge while we were gone), and went to sleep.

As of April 29, 2019, PlugShare reports that North Carolina currently has a total of 45 DC Fast Charging sites, with 64 DC Fast charging dispensers in operation provided by ChargePoint (5), EVgo (22), Greenlots (16), and Electrify America (21). By July 1, we should have 54 sites with 92 dispensers, the bulk of these from Electrify America. 

ChargePoint

ChargePoint is the smallest player in the state with only 5 DC fast stations deployed, most are 25kW (Raleigh Land Rover, Durham BMW, Greensboro Land Rover) with two 50kW in Wallace and Lenoir. As of this writing, only the station in Lenoir is technically in operation. Greensboro Land Rover has locked their stations down so no one can activate them, the Wallace station has an Error 39 with a service call reported, Durham BMW has a broken CCS connector, and Raleigh’s Land Rover hasn’t turned theirs on yet.

EVgo

EVgo is the current leader in DC Fast in NC. They operate 22 dispensers at 22 sites across the state: 2 in Asheville at the outlet mall & Biltmore Park, Charlotte has 9 total, 6 at BP station deployments: Ballantyne Commons Pkwy, Walker Branch Road, Steele Creek Rd, Mt Holly-Huntersville Rd, Vinnie's Way, and Cambridge Commons Dr. And 3 more at The Shoppes at Highland Creek, Thomas Ave Public Lot, and SouthPark Mall. Mooresville has one at a BP, Durham has 2 at The Hyatt and South Square, Cary has a lone station, as does Morrisville. Raleigh has 3 located at The Marriott, a Sheetz, and AAA New Hope Rd. Wake Forest has one at the AAA, Mint Hill’s lone charger at Earp’s Express, and Matthews has a BP. As of this writing, it seems that all stations are operational.

Greenlots

Is the #3 player in NC. They have two in Asheville at Biltmore Ave Parking Deck and Asheville Public Works, and the only other city with two deployments is Charlotte: AAA South End and AAA on Flat River Dr. All other locations have a single dispenser: Cherokee, Waynesville, Dallas, Salisbury, Matthews, Wadesboro, Greensboro, Hillsborough, Durham, Chapel Hill, Leland, and Calabash. Cherokee, Hillsborough, and Salisbury are all out of order as of this writing. Greenlots has the worst maintenance record in this area, because the company only provides account management. Any repairs are the station owner’s responsibility, where the other operators handle the maintenance along with account management. 

Electrify America

The new kid on the block who is going to be a superstar. They currently have 5 sites open: Asheville (4 dispensers), Raleigh (6), Wake Forest (3), Rocky Mount (4), and Henderson (4). These sites represent 21 dispensers - 1 less than the current leader. They have 6 more sites under construction: Greensboro (8), Charlotte (4), Durham (4), Cary (4), Smithfield (4), and Lumberton (4). These 6 sites will add 28 more dispensers in the state, solidifying their lead as the #1 DC Fast Charging operator with 49 dispensers. As of this writing, ground is broken on all these sites. Greensboro should be open any day now as it’s construction has been complete for months. I have it on good authority that there are more sites coming to NC, and that one should keep checking PlugShare for more coming soon markers.

How fast has Electrify America been building out their network? According to Plug-in NC:

Walmart Supercenter in Henderson opened December 17, 2018

Walmart Supercenter in Wake Forest opened March 1, 2019

Sheetz convenience store in Rocky Mount opened February 4, 2019

Sam’s Club in Asheville opened April 3, 2019

Pleasant Valley Promenade in Raleigh opened March 7, 2019

My wedding ceremony was November 24, 2018. The week leading up to Thanksgiving and my wedding, only Henderson was “coming soon.” By the day of my wedding, Greensboro, Asheville, Rocky Mount, and Raleigh were announced. You can see that they’ve opened all these sites within 5 months time. This is just phase 1, folks. Phase 2 starts July 1...

How does it compare to Tesla?

Tesla has 13 sites in NC: Asheville, Hickory, Charlotte, Greensboro, Burlington, Raleigh, Rocky Mount, Plymouth, Fayetteville, Warsaw, Lumberton, Wallace, and Wilmington. They have a total of 112 dispensers across these sites, with two sites in Nagshead and Durham opening “soon.” They are currently the largest DC fast network, hands down, with the caveat that they are only for their cars. I have a serious issue with Tesla not adopting the CCS standard that everyone else uses (and even Nissan seems to agree it’s the future). 

My Prediction for 2021

The charging race is on. EVgo and ChargePoint are behind the game, and Tesla is cash strapped and not completing their build out as fast as promised. Electrify America, which is the fully independent charging infrastructure entity Volkswagen of America had to start up as part of their Diesel Emission Settlement, has no shortage of funding and has been working for two years to secure sites with partners Target, Sheetz, and Walmart -- among others. While their sites were largely unreliable, the v2.0 firmware (displays an idle/not in use screen saver promoting the mobile app and the membership benefits, this firmware also shows a charge % complete screen saver during a charging session) pushed out in the last two or three weeks has made them reliable 90% of the time. How do I know? I use them 3-5 times per week, every week. I believe that Electrify America will come out swinging in late 2020 with TV, radio, and online ads for their network. I expect claims of we’re larger and faster than Tesla. I anticipate Porsche and Audi to offer 350kW charging options for their cars, so they can claim they can traverse long distances faster than Tesla. Why do I say that? Well, the Tesla V3 Supercharger caps out at 250kW and only the Model 3 supports that rate of charge. Even if Audi’s eTron only goes 205 miles before needing a charge, the Electrify America Network (which Audi owners get 1000 free kWh from with purchase of their car) will provide the Audi with a shorter charge stop than Tesla. Porsche has already said “Getting into a car and doing 0-to-60 mph in less than three seconds—can you really differentiate yourself if you do it in 2.8 seconds, and the other can do it in 2.7?," said Klaus Zellmer, the head of Porsche Cars North America. “There are other factors that will gain importance, such as charging time.” And they’re currently in the lead there and the media is taking notice.