Site Review: Freewire BP Pulse at Arco Plumas Lake
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- Опубліковано 8 вер 2024
- I had a chance to drop by a recent Freewire Boost charging location at the Arco travel plaza in Plumas Lake, CA. The chargers are branded as BP Pulse, and the payment network is managed through EV Connect. The location provides a number of amenities, including a convenience store, air pump, squeegees, trash cans, vacuums, etc.
The site features two 150 kW Freewire Boost split-power chargers with 160 kWh grid-tie batteries. This newer design includes three CCS1 cables and only a single CHAdeMO cable; however, Freewire has announced that they plan to start adding new CCS plug using the Tesla format, so we might see a shift in plug-type distribution at these sites.
PlugShare: www.plugshare....
I have been watching this guy's videos for over 4 years. How is it he still has only 6.65K subs. That's ridiculous. It should be 66K if not many multiples of that by now. The UA-cam algorithms need to be improved so his channel is recommended to more people. I hope the manufacturers are watching his channel, as the information is always very good.
Thank you for the vote of confidence!
Glad to see you back posting Eric and hope treatment is working wonders for your family. ;)
Thank you, Paul. The treatments aren't great, but hopefully that means they're working. I really hope I'm back. I barely have time to come up for air... Or charging. 😁
Thank you for the new site close look. Personally, I think putting charging in with other refueling is excellent. Amenities are served!! Has to make establishing new charging sites much more cost effective. I agree that Freewire is a great model for the rural sites; likely faster to get it or increase/update. Less costly power = site owner margin to use for improvements or sharing with customers.
I’d like to see at least a good sized cowl to cast shade / rain break at the charger so I can see displayed info easily and not get soaked while starting / ending a session.
Interested to see more BP Pulse and Shell Recharge reviews in the future!
I go to this site every now and then. I agree there should be a cover over the stations. Especially in the brutal NorCal sun.
I love the way Pulse has set it up on the side of the parking, that way I don't have to back-in with my Kia EV6.
Thanks for this, I always enjoy seeing the variety of sites you have popping up over there.
Although we have Freewire units going in here around the Northeast, they all seem to be in slightly awkward spots that don't quite fit my travel. I keep an eye on the listings, though, and the reliability reports are generally negative.
I hope it's just our region, because the Boost hardware is a useful solution for mitigating demand charges and serving remote areas, which is exactly where we need that reliability to be bulletproof.
Really great to see a new post! Hope Eric & family are doing better.
GM calls it NACS and Eric should too. CCS tops out at 500A but NACS goes higher. We already know that Tesla and probably Volvo + Polestar are charging at over 600A. If NACS doesn’t conform to CCS technical specs then it’s not CCS.
Thanks!
Yes, I know people are referring to it as NACS, but that's only because that is what Tesla called it in their documentation. They are simply trying to avoid confusion within the automotive industry.
My hope is that SAE changes the name during the standardization process because the term "NACS" actually has the opposite effect in the consumer world. It makes the difference between this new standard and Tesla's existing Superchargers even more difficult to discern, it confuses the issue of reliability by standard versus reliability by charging provider, it doesn't reflect the regions where the standard will be deployed, and it confuses consumers by making them think that automakers are switching away from CCS (when realistically, the opposite is true).
This new plug is a new CCS standard, and there's really no way around that.
@@newscoulomb3705 NACS is the word even used by Charln.
@@firstbigbarney Yes, because they have no other official name to give it. They are simply calling it what Tesla called it. But, just as SAE didn't call the J1772-2009 standard "Yazaki-2009," they are most likely going to rename it as part of the standardization process. Given that the standard is based on CCS, it should be named accordingly.
@@newscoulomb3705 I know I say it a lot but I love your educated view over people just jumping on the bandwagon and not really know what is going on because Tesla makes something up.
@@markfitzpatrick6692 Thanks! I usually don't care too much about marketing buzz words, unless they are misleading. In this case, I'm already seeing journalists posting stories like "CCS is dead," which might influence people's buying decisions when it comes to what EVs are currently on the market.
7:50 Freewire should really implement a day/night theme with the display user interface. It is very hard to see that screen which is primarily in dark mode (white text on a black background) during the day. They should have regular light mode with black text on a white background to make it easier to see the screen in the day. A simple software change would go a long way to improving usability and they don't even need to upgrade to a brighter or less reflective LCD screen.
That's a great point! The green on black looks cool, but in direct sunlight, it can be difficult to read.
I assumed this was a cellphone camera. That's a great steady framerate for 4k.
Yeah, I prefer a dedicated camera, though I might want to start filming in 60 fps, given how much I move around without an additional stabilizer.
Good review and very relevant points. Got a kick out of your assessment of a 5/10, "just showing up for the test!"
Haven't seen a Freewire station in my area. Love the fee rate. No question that it is challenging for charging suppliers to keep up with the evolving charging changes (phasing out Chademo, implementing the evolving Tesla/CCS). Canopies sure would be nice and not only help the motorist (hmmm, that doesn't sound like the right designation anymore) but also the longevity of the charger and screens.
Installing chargers is one challenge, maintaining them is another. Went to the local grocery store and there are 2 Electrify America and 2 EVGo. Both EA were down (one had an ICE car with its gas cover opened to look like it was charging, clever at least). EVGo were both up but slower/older units. Keeping the units up seems to be one of the larger issues.
Hope all is well at home and you are starting to free up your personal time. Enjoy seeing/hearing your thoughts on the state of all things EV.
Motorist is now the correct term .EV's have a motor not an engine fueled with petrol fossil fuel.
Maybe were back to the right term.
Wagonmaster or Teamster,Engineer? , now Motorist.
Thanks, Bruce! I'm confident things will get sorted out sooner rather than later. I also don't mind having a mix of different chargers at a given site (even by multiple providers). For EA, though, I've pretty much lost patience. They are the most ubiquitous public charging provider, yet they are also one of the most unreliable. I've given them nearly 5 years to improve their reliability, but after the initial improvement following the rollout of their app, they've stagnated. They're still at the "only half the chargers at a site are working" reliability where they were 4 years ago. Luckily, with ChargePoint, EVgo, and now Tesla rolling out faster public charging sites, EA is becoming a lot less necessary for EV travelers.
@@firstbigbarney Good point. Motorist it is.
Another perk of canopies is that they can have solar panels on them, helping reduce operating costs for the charging stations.
@@JohnGeorgeBauerBuis Yes. I think a number of charging providers have poo-pooed the impact of the solar panels, but to me, that's only if you're comparing a snapshot of power generation versus power output. The energy generated over time is significant, and even if they only offset one charging session a week (typically 40-50 kWh), that's something.
Intrrestingly i tried to charge at the EA station in Placerville and could not initiate with either the app or the NFC. Ended up swiping a CC to start the charge. Ironically, I didn't actually get charged for 34 kwH.
That's odd. I thought the NFC and CC readers were connected, but hey, if it worked, that's all that matters.
@@newscoulomb3705 well the NFC didn't recognize my account, so the app and rhe NFC may have had the same failure.
Hi Eric any new updates? Looking forward to your next video sir 😊
Thank you! I'm still a bit busy with work and a family medical emergency, so my time is limited. If you aren't aware already, I have been taking some time to collaborate with @plugandplayEV on various charging related topics, but I should be back to making my own videos soon.
@@newscoulomb3705 I am aware actually however, I couldn’t find the video... Thank you for plugging his channel, I’m gonna watch it right now while at work. Best of luck with everything including your family, Godspeed.
@@DonGrigorianFishing Thank you!
I prefer the Tesla plug and charge without a card experience myself but as NACS ports start showing up on non Tesla sites like this, I would probably prefer a card reader instead of apps for sure.
Yes, and Autocharge should definitely be an option, too. It's possible that the most sessions logged will be through Autocharge because it makes the most sense for frequent users. However, I think that a majority of users (primarily infrequent users) will log most of their session through the POS payment reader.
Also, as you note, Autocharge makes the most sense for people who exclusively (or even just primarily) use one provider. For EV owners who don't have a strong preference for one provider over another, paying at the POS without membership obligations makes the most sense.
Those screens are hard to read in direct sunlight, not as bad as some others I've seen but this remains a pain point. Also it will only get worse when the screen is inevitably defaced.
I'm not as worried about the screens being defaced, though vandalism against CCS chargers and plugs specifically has been on the rise. But I do agree with your point about reading the screens in direct sunlight. To me, if a business is going to invest hundreds of thousands of dollars in chargers, the least they could do is cover them with a basic canopy. Solar would be ideal, but even that's not absolutely necessary.
You never know what power output you will get from a Freewire unit. If a Rivian or F150 Lightning preceeds you, the unit's battery will be depleted and you will not be happy. I have a recent photo from Santa Rosa Coddington showing 5 Leafs charging at once. CHAdeMO is going to be important in NorCal for another decade.
I often charge late at night in cities like Berkeley, Richmond, Emeryville, and Oakland - I would rather not have my credit card out; just plugging in has its advantages.
I agree. 300,000+ Nissan LEAFs aren't just going to disappear overnight.
As for CC readers, I think Autocharge is way better for frequent users. My point is that moving forward, I think we're going to see fewer and fewer frequent users. Even with gas pumps, it can be that way. I still have two gas powered cars, and I haven't used a gas pump in nearly 4 months. It helps that one is a Volt and I mostly drive the Bolt, but still. That's a long time between fueling away from home.
"You never know what power output you will get from a Freewire unit."
Unless you're driving a Bolt.
@@ab-tf5fl Yup. Like I said, these units are ideal for smaller, more efficient cars like the Bolt EV, Kona Electric, Niro EV, etc. The problem is with larger, less efficient EVs that demand higher power at all times.
It really seems like Nissan should be offering their customers a Chademo to CCS1 adapter, so we don’t have to keep putting Chademo plugs on new chargers going forward.
I'm not sure that one exists, but it's also not just the Nissan LEAF. CHAdeMO is still one of the simplest ways to enable DC fast charging on EV conversions. It costs thousands less than adding CCS, and it has far more aftermarket support. If we had cheap, safe, easy to implement aftermarket CCS kits, then CHAdeMO would be mostly unnecessary at newer, faster charging locations.
I agree that is the way it should be, just pay by credit card or debit card and you're done, just like a gas station. Make it simple.
How is your Ford electric truck going? Did you see the new Chevy Silverado electric truck! It looks GREAT.
Right now, the truck progress is on pause due to some family issues. I barely have time to post videos at this point. I did see the Silverado EV, and it's definitely a great option. I'm really more interested in the lower cost trims, but it's going to be several years before we really see those.
Hey Erik,
Do you know what's going on with the Tesla/CCS chargers. I have a Niro and want to charge at them but the Tesla app only shows what's happening in the east near New York. Can you up-date us on any progress on that front?
Unfortunately, I think that Magic Dock experiment might be over. With Tesla releasing their plug for standardization with the CCS communication/protocols, Tesla will likely no longer need to include CCS adapters for their chargers to qualify for Federal funding. They might still need to unlock them through their app (which still hasn't happened), but we might soon be at a point where everyone needs to have their own Tesla-to-CCS1 adapter.
@@newscoulomb3705 Thanks Erik,
One more quick question. Are Tesla to CCS adapters available now. A few months ago I searched for one but was unsuccessful.
@@ronblack9092 Not that I know of. The only Tesla to CCS1 adapters I know of are part of the Magic Dock program. Ford, GM, Rivian, etc. have mentioned that they will start providing their customers with one early next year.
@@newscoulomb3705 Thanks Erik,
I enjoy your EV travels. Have a great day!
@@ronblack9092I did see one for sale, but it won’t be too useful (as the manufacturer states) until Ford, GM, Rivian, etc. are announced as being able to charge on Supercharger stations beyond those with the Magic Dock.
14:20 Did Freewire do a hardware revision? The first spec label says only 120 kW max output but then the second label says 150 kW max. Which one is it?
Also regarding site charger concentration, Francis Energy is finally starting to roll out chargers in my state (New Mexico). They're going for two Power Electronics 150 kW units at most locations with 1 CHAdeMO and 1 CCS plug each (so 2 of each total). I understand for your area in California with more EVs that only two dedicated units with 4 ports total isn't enough. But I think right now in New Mexico, it is just adequate. Note that these aren't along Interstate corridors, just US highways. I would have liked more than a 1:1 CCS to CHAdeMO ratio though since the PE units can split power.
I need to do a little more research on the Boost chargers. I know Freewire isn't sitting still, so I'll have to take some time to keep up with their changes.
I have seen the Francis Energy rollout into New Mexico. That is promising, though I've heard mixed feedback on Francis in terms of pricing, reliability, etc. I do agree that there are places where even two active plug heads are appropriate, but I need to weigh that against the location. In this case, it's a four-lane highway 30 miles North of Sacramento, so four active charging stalls is definitely bare minimum.
I've been finding it somewhat ironic that we're seeing lower powered Freewire's in gas stations right off the highway, while the higher-powered Electrify America's are buried in WalMart parking lots that require lots of "slop time" to access.
From the perspective of the EV community as a whole, this seems backwards, although for Bolt drivers, it's quite good this way, as most of the other drivers will go for the EA, leaving the Freewire chargers available for Bolts, and if you don't need much power, you can make up the time lost from slower charging speeds simply by spending less time driving from the freeway to the charger and back again.
Both sites are needed, in my opinion, but you're right that Walmarts are more useful for local drivers. For a lot of rural drivers, shorter range EVs aren't an option unless charging is available at local shopping plazas. Chargers at Walmarts address that gap.
The difference probably simply a cost / deep pockets issue. Walmart has both space and a bigger site budget than most small-medium roadway travel stops. And 150kWh+ charging is capital XPNSV!
Thanks for the review Erik. Don’t you wish you had a station like this in the United States to review. This is a video from Bjørn for a show charging station in Norway.
ua-cam.com/video/qR2M5W6saAk/v-deo.html
Coming soon, maybe? There's a lot to like about that Shell station, but unfortunately, I don't see our travel plazas getting up to that level anytime soon. I fear that the best we're going to get in the near future is a bank of EA chargers at Love's, EVgo chargers at Pilot, and Superchargers at Buc-ee's.
I know that Kempower is starting to deploy chargers in the United States (through ZEF Energy, IIRC), but I don't have any to see here in California.
Eric, the Tesla/NACS plug is NOT designed by CCS1. Tesla has used the same protocol, but it is not CCS1. GM, Ford, Rivian. Volvo, etc. I believe all auto manufacturers will have the Tesla/NACS connector. As it stans now ONLY Tesla vehicles with the CCS1 adapter can use any dc fast charger.
Older tesla models need a hardware update to allow charging on CCS. Later models support CCS1 protocol.
@@JohnRoss1 correct
@JohnRoss1 You are correct. I have a Tesla M3DM November 2018 and a May 2023 DMLRY along with a CCS1 adapter.
No, the Tesla plug was not designed by CCS, but if it is adopted as proposed by Tesla, it will be a CCS variant. The format has never been the standard, and because Tesla's documentation specified Power Line Communications and DIN/ISO protocols, the plug will be, by definition, CCS, with 100% interoperability with CCS1 EVs.
This is essentially the same process as J1772 transitioning from Avcon to Yazaki. In that analogy, Tesla is Yazaki, and CCS is J1772. We are just migrating the CCS standard to the Tesla plug format.
@newscoulomb3705 Eric, give up. Tesla and Elon Musk are not as bad as you think. Just like Marry Barra, you can say and give credit to Tesla and the NACS connector is a thousand times better in design, and 2 or 3 times the capability of CCS1. Note, we are not going to agree on the Tesla NACS connector, but that is soon to be the North America Charging Standard 😀. Is GM going to keep making the Bolt or similar?
I think you’re too hard on this location for concentration. 3 CCS plus a CHAdeMO in this very out of the way place seems quite reasonable. I would score at least a 7/10.
This site is only 30 miles north of Sacramento on a four-lane highway. It's not the most traveled route north-south, but it is a fairly busy bypass.
in the future there will really be no more chademo or ccs.. Sort of like unleaded gas.. sure some old cars loved the unleaded gas
We'll see. There might still be a need for CCS1. When applying the same safety standards and limitations, the Tesla plug will always be at a power disadvantage to CCS1. I can easily foresee a future where 1 MW chargers are fitted with CCS1 and CCS3 (the Tesla plug), and the former can supply the full 1 MW while the later is restricted to 500 to 600 kW. That would also help to bridge the gap with MCS, where the speeds will typically be >1 MW, though I suppose any EV that charges faster than 500 kW might end up with MCS instead.
Freewire is done as a company
No, chademo cars deserve ports until theres an adapter made. Unless they’ll magically put a j1772 port as a backup. And credit card only is the future!
This is up to Nissan and any other to support their cars with an adapter.
Leafs (leaves?) were never good road trip cars with their batteries that start off small and go down from there. A ChAdEmO bay is going to be wasted space 90% of the time (with most of their sparse use by older Tesla's).
If Leaf buyers wanted to be able to charge on the road they should have not bought a car with an effectively proprietary charging connector.
I would say Sandy Munro is one of the few people on youtube that has credentials for EV's. Most of the so called EV experts on youtube are not EV experts at all. They are more like used car salespeople who are clueless. It is sad to see these so called experts telling you things about EV's that may or may not be true. Educational backgrounds are never mentioned and some of these people have no educational background. Be careful of who you believe on youtube since the information could be biased since people are making money for their presentations and money can bias people in what they say about EV's. Many of these people are more like cult followings.
Unfortunately, there aren't really any "credentials" that apply to EVs outside of more general degrees in engineering (electrical, mechanical, structural, etc.). Even more unfortunate, in the case of some who are actually qualified by credential, they are also still very bias in their reporting and presentation. Munro & A is a perfect example of that, where they often withhold or misrepresent data that doesn't fit their narrative.
For me, I defer to experts who are both qualified and unbiased, such as Professor Kelly with Weber State University or Bob Galyen.
Reporters and journalists don't necessarily have to be experts in anything other than spoken and written communication, and luckily, it is fairly easy to see through biased reporting over time (i.e., figuring out who are simply brand influencers and who are actually journalists). Unfortunately, some of the best, most knowledgeable EV journalists still don't have the following they deserve. For example, you'd learn more about EV battery chemistries from reading just a couple of Pedro Lima's PushEVs articles than you would from watching dozens of Munro & A or other TSLA influencer videos.
Eric, it's not going to be called ANYTHING except the NACS connector by TESLA. You're getting back to your old ways and dismissing TESLA, the greatest automobile manufacturer in the world 😂. I'm just missing with you a little. Be nice, they are designed by Tesla, NOT CCS1.
In five years there will be one person still calling it CCS and it just might be Eric.
Eric knows what he is talking about. Except his pronunciation of Chad - E- MO. No. dame O Eric you must be watching Nikki from transport evolved too much. I have had a leaf over 8 years and lots are still around they have sold 600,000 I see new ones all the time. I hate when people dismiss it just because Tesla decides the need to use every charger. We have lots of dual units and superchargers so their is no reason for Tesla to use non Tesla when most post I see is how great they are and how bad everyone else is. Then use Tesla . I just saw a guy on Twitter who drove across the usa in his bolt and he had zero problems.
@davidws5439 why are you on this channel if you feel the need to stick up for anything Tesla . Lots of Tesla channels out there. Eric is on top of most things that are going on . I would trust him.
@@markfitzpatrick6692 I like fair and balanced EV stuff. Can't find it with Tesla Fan Bois and now can't find it on this channel. His hatred of Tesla is just as bad as the Tesla Fanatics. His negativity towards Tesla has been growing and it is no longer non-biased information.
@markfitzpatrick6692 Mark, Mind you're own you're business. Was my comment addressed to you? No. F OFF.
They went all out with 4 plugs.. Why put in chademo ?? Let them use an adapter....
Where's the solar panels and covers ??? Autopay is the future... CC are obsolete like checks...
4 chargers should not get more than 3 out of 10...Screens and payments add more failure points...
Slow / fast chargers...The rating you give is overly generous...5 out of 10 is a failure...
Split power is 75Kw so good for 10 year old cars...You know its NACS .....
Your point about credit card payment being the future was interesting. I certainly agree its the gas station model that works for us today.
But EV charging economics are somewhat different from gas refueling. In particular, charging is slow and chargers are very expensive. Improving speed/throughput, including the speed of setting up the charge session, will be critical. I think we will have to make a lot of changes to make EV charging economically viable.
Ford/Chevy claim that in the future Tesla charging will be routed through a Ford/Chevy account. What if the Ford/Chevy account could also centralize billing for EA, EVGo, etc.? Credit cards charge fairly high fees (~~2%), hopefully the Ford/Chevy account would have a lower overhead.
You make a good point about how most people do not make many long range trips, including me, but I still want the ability to fast charge even when I'm in my hometown, in case I happen to run out of charge while out(forgot to charge, or its cold, or I'm just driving a lot that day, etc.) So I'll setup that account with Ford/Chevy not just for my long trips but also for the possibility that I may need to charge locally.
You could keep the credit card readers on the machine as a backup device but Tesla has shown that if your network works reliably, you don't need backup devices, and those devices are a source of complexity and failure.
I agree a number of things would have to change for the Tesla model to work outside of Tesla. But conversely Tesla has shown that it can be done, and I would argue, has to be done, for charging to work economically in the future.
Transitioning the account holding company to the automaker still requires someone to hold and access the payment information. Many people won't want that. GM is already facing a lot of pushback for their subscription models, and they'll receive even more pushback for trying to maintain an open and active payment account.
Also, I've never seen the credit card readers as a "backup." They have always been the primary payment method so long as the charging provider doesn't have pricing models that punish people for paying at the point of sale.
I'm also not understanding the connection between Tesla's omission of screens and readers and economic viability. Those two things seem to be mutually exclusive to me. The Superchargers are profitable for Tesla because they are essentially part of the marketing budget, and Tesla is able to drive enough traffic to the sites to offset any demand penalties.
In order for public charging to be profitable at this point, the network must either be affiliated with an automaker or a high-margin business (e.g., convenience stores or fast food). The use of displays and payment readers don't really factor into it.
I agree with News Coulomb that a credit card reader is the simplest and easiest way to pay. Worst case, the amount of actual transaction time it adds over plug-and-charge is only a few seconds, but when visiting a new charging provider you haven't used before, tapping a credit card is just so much faster than taking out your phone, downloading an app, creating an account, and registering your credit card.
In the ICE world, there is nothing technologically preventing someone from building a network of gas stations similar to how EV chargers typically work. Making gas pumps that activate with phone apps rather than credit card taps is simply a matter of software. With cooperation from the automakers, you can even do the fuel equivalent of plug-and-charge - whatever communication happens takes place over the wire between the car and the charger in the EV world can simply be done over wifi. The car can even tell the fuel pump which type of fuel it takes, sparing the driver from having to select between regular, premium, or diesel.
But, there is a reason why no gas station works this way, and the reason is that the experience sucks, and it is so much simpler and more convenient to be able to just tap your credit card against a reader and be done with it. And, there is nothing special about EVs vs. gas that changes this.
Eric Way - the true originator of @RateYourCharge
Not really they are two different ratings, one for a small area and the other for all areas.
The large area gives a better overview of the chatging environment.