Fast Charging Station in Mountain View, California

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SanJosei3

Member
Joined
Sep 1, 2014
Messages
5
I've had my Tera electric-only i3 for just over a week and I love it. Here it is getting it's first Fast Charge at the CSS Combo charging station operated by NRG eVgo at the Nob Hills Foods market in Mountain View California. I stopped by on the way home and while I bought some groceries, I went from 25 miles left to 90% charge in less than 20 minutes. And the best part is that it was free as part of the ChargeNow membership that BMW provides with the car. Unfortunately, this is the only Fast CSS Combo charging station that I know of in Northern California. There are more planned, but I will have to wait and see. Having these widely deployed will transform electric car ownership.

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SanJosei3 said:
I've had my Tera electric-only i3 for just over a week and I love it. Here it is getting it's first Fast Charge at the CSS Combo charging station operated by NRG eVgo at the Nob Hills Foods market in Mountain View California. I stopped by on the way home and while I bought some groceries, I went from 25 miles left to 90% charge in less than 20 minutes. And the best part is that it was free as part of the ChargeNow membership that BMW provides with the car. Unfortunately, this is the only Fast CSS Combo charging station that I know of in Northern California. There are more planned, but I will have to wait and see. Having these widely deployed will transform electric car ownership.
Did you gain access with the ChargePoint card that came with your car? Did you need to do anything other than activate the card?
 
Boatguy,
I originally created a ChargePoint account and then I found the ChargeNow cards from BMW in the owners manual. I was able to activate them in ChargePoint. I called ChargePoint Support and asked them about the difference between ChargePoint and ChargeNow since ChargeNow is operated by ChargePoint. ChargeNow was created for BMW in partnership with ChargePoint and ChargePoint operates it. It's pretty much identical, except it offers the free Fast Charging on NGR eVgo. ChargePoint converted my account for me to a ChargeNow and all I had to do was enter my VIN # the first time I logged into ChargeNow. For others, I'd recommend you just create the ChargeNow account the first time. You will have all the benefits of ChargePoint and you will have the free fast charging on NRG eVgo. I don't know if you can also use standard Level 2 charging on NRG eVgo for pay. This many sound confusing - it took me a while to figure it out.
Hope this helps....
SanJosei3
 
Boatguy said:
Did you gain access with the ChargePoint card that came with your car? Did you need to do anything other than activate the card?

I went through the same activation process before trying the eVgo station in Mountain View. When I got there, however, the SAE port was set for free/open access. No swipe, no nothing. I've charged there three times without authenticating.

I assume that will change, but just FYI.
 
Volkswagen Group of America, 500 Clipper Drive, Belmont has a free SAE Combo DCFC. It requires a free Greenlots membership. Saw an i3 charging side by side with a Leaf that was using the free CHAdeMo station.

Regards, Peter
 
SanJosei3 said:
Boatguy,
I originally created a ChargePoint account and then I found the ChargeNow cards from BMW in the owners manual. I was able to activate them in ChargePoint. I called ChargePoint Support and asked them about the difference between ChargePoint and ChargeNow since ChargeNow is operated by ChargePoint. ChargeNow was created for BMW in partnership with ChargePoint and ChargePoint operates it. It's pretty much identical, except it offers the free Fast Charging on NGR eVgo. ChargePoint converted my account for me to a ChargeNow and all I had to do was enter my VIN # the first time I logged into ChargeNow. For others, I'd recommend you just create the ChargeNow account the first time. You will have all the benefits of ChargePoint and you will have the free fast charging on NRG eVgo. I don't know if you can also use standard Level 2 charging on NRG eVgo for pay. This many sound confusing - it took me a while to figure it out.
Hope this helps....
SanJosei3
I went through a similar sign up. But they must have figured it out because I can sign into the ChargeNow web site with my ChargePoint account.

The ChargePoint web site allows filtering for DC combo chargers and it's showing 12 DC Combo stations at 4701 Great America Parkway in Santa Clara, plus the one at Nob Hill Grocery. Nothing in the north bay.

There is an NRG eVgo station in Corte Madera with a Level 2 and CHAdeMO charger. I'll give it a try and see if the ChargeNow card will operate the Level 2 charger.
 
I stopped there (Mountain View) this afternoon to give it a try and to hopefully activate my free charging account for 2015. Unfortunately, I didn't get very far.
The handshake between the station and car seemed to work fine, but the charger immediately flashed a message stating it was experiencing some kind of error and was no longer functional. It further stated that NRG eVgo had been notified automatically.

Perhaps coincidentally, I just collected my car yesterday from BMW Mountain View after having the latest software update to deal with the KLE issues.

I'd be curious to hear from others that stop by there going forward. If it works for someone else, I'll go back and see if I can get through it too.
 
I'm sure this is old news, but the Mountain View DC fast charge is working fine now. I stopped there a couple of days ago, activated my card, and picked up about 50% charge in (what seemed like) a blink of an eye. Very cool.
 
Nob Hill works great. But the flagship "BMW" Blue charge now (Chargepoint) charger in Mountain View has some real issues. I tried the extended drive a month ago - while I was waiting for the BEV I wanted to come in... then I had a similar problem but I thought the Chargepoint card was not properly registered.

Anyone else have issues with this charger. The i3 with a nice coat of dust sitting in front of the charger was not a good omen but what the heck, I thought how could it not work.

Location: BMW Group Technology Office, 2606 Bayshore Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043

Seems cards will not scan. My card scanned fine on the L2 units... so it wasn't my card - an hour later my card worked like a champ at the EVGO in MV Nob Hill.

So back to the BMW Group Tech office - Unit says it is charging, lights are blue, but no juice according to the car and also Chargepoint support when I called. They reset the system but then I got a text from Chargepoint indicating: "Your vehicle plugged into BMW GROUP TECH/ FAST CHARGER 01 is drawing very little power and may be fully charged.. Call Chargepoint 888 number for help" the same guys that just reset it. Then they said they could not see the unit or my car...but the unit was blue blinking on the car and would not let go. Again the blue box with BMW logo said "charging XX minute at 0.000 kWh. Car dash had no DC charge logo.. popped up the word service.... hmm, I had bought the car 2 hours earlier.... registered all the cards. Anyway, I called BMW - they told me to call Chargpoint, Chargpoint told me it was the car. I set the charger to low turned the car on and off, locked and unlocked, no luck. Found the red reset button on the BMW Fast Charger - boom ! Just like a hard reset on my Macbook Pro - haven't done that in a while. The grip was released and I got the hell out of there.... Nob Hill NRG Evgo charger worked great while I bough fixings for dinner.

I am still waiting for my BMW assist to come online - I am at 8 hours and waiting after purchase. If the BMW GROUP TECH fast charger is not ready for prime time - they should state it.... beware.

I have to say, I thought that going to the BMW Tech office charger would be easy and work great. I didn't expect it to be like the Tesla design center where I charged a rental Tesla I drove to LA and back - but hey - it has a bunch of chargers and is at ground zero for EVs... never thought it would be a nightmare.

Hoping for some fast chargers down below 280 soon.

Aoba

2014 i3 BEV, everything but the 20's, touch of grey....
 
justanotherdrunk said:
I get a free (included) fast dc charge to ~85% at the new whole Foods in SJ on the Alameda every other day with no problems. :ugeek:

Yup, that one works great. I have been there a few times. It is a pain if a Leaf is there at the same time although the charger has two outlets only one can go at a time...strange.
 
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