Ford Dealership Gets "PlugIn" Friendly

Whaaa? OMG. Doesn't seem right. That, right there, could spark other local businesses people to think the very same way. And then it might spread. Pretty soon, a whole lot of places might have charging stations. And what kind of world will that be? Sheesh.

 

In my little town of Monroe, GA there is now a Level 2 charging station at Walgreen's. In nearby Conyers, GA there are two charging stations in the parking lot of the Cracker Barrel restaurant.

Right up the street from the Cracker Barrel, John Miles Chevrolet has added an outdoor outlet for Volt users to plug in but not a full fledged charging station.

 

food establishments would be a good place to put chargers.

come charge your car and eat!

 

In our little county of Orange, CA, the local IKEA in Cost Mesa has several new Blink chargers (fancy touch screens, and you just swipe your card!). A few miles away, the little local mall of South Coast Plaza has two electric chargers in the parking garage below the mall. In fact, when I took this picture, there was a Nissan Leaf parked there.






And yet out little local Toyota dealer, Power Toyota Irvine, still doesn't have an EV charging station yet.

For those interested, I just found this via Google:
http://www.blinknetwork.com/

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The stations that I see in your photos are stations where the user pays. Here in my area, the stations that I'm seeing are ones that are free to the user. The businesses are paying for the power.

 

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That will be a great future if businesses advertise "free EV chargers" as much as they advertise "free wifi" today.
Having said that, I would rather see an entrepreneur, driven by profit, put in hundreds or thousands of EV chargers today rather than continue to read media articles of journalists complaining that there's nowhere to charge EVs and so "they are not practical."

 

It appears to me that the driver of the Leaf is taking advantage of the "EV Reserved" designated parking spot, but isn't charging his vehicle. (Unless there is another charging unit hidden by the car?)

SimiPrius, who posts on the forum, told me he contacted Costco about updating their charging stations (they have the old ones from years ago) and was told there is not enough demand or EVs to warrant any upgrades. I spoke to a manager at our local Costco yesterday, and he was interested in what I was buying, and said he would send the suggestion on to the appropriate people in the organization. Hope it goes to someone besides the person who answered SimiPrius' email.

 

I think Ford's got a good idea. Along a route the Ford dealer becomes a destination. The non-Ford EV owner has a reasonably comfortable place to hang out for a length of time and can look at Fords. Here's a chance to move someone from "won't even consider" to "maybe buy".

Lots of work needs to be done. If Nissan, Ford, someone (anyone) installs a few chargers between State College & Philadelphia I'd be happy.

 

Which is like the "free wifi" concept, and other businesses should do it to. Unlike free wifi, you won't be staring at your computer the whole time, and instead you will be shopping (think Costco or Best Buy). Heck, with Plug-in hybrids, like the plug-in Prius, the battery is only so big, so the business will have an easier time justifying the cost of the electricity versus the increased business.

Hopefully once the Prius PHV, Ford plug-ins, and more plug-ins are on the street, Costco will take a serious reconsideration of that statement.

 

I currently live in New Jersey. I'm originally from Delaware County, Pennsylvania just 5 miles from Springfield Ford / Lincoln Mercury.
I own a 2003 Toyota RAV4 EV with over 90,000 miles. We stopped by and charged up using the Leviton charger on Friday April 13, 2012. The folks at this dealership were very gracious in letting us charge our RAV4 EV. I wish all dealerships would be this open and forward thinking when it comes to installing charging stations. Ford Focus EV is expected sometime later this summer. Looking forward to a test drive. Thank you Jim Thomas at Springfield Ford.