What may become the first public 350 kW electric vehicle charging station in the U.S. appears to be nearing completion. Located in the desert town of Baker, California on I-15, it is ideally located for drivers traveling between Los Angeles and Las Vegas.
In this photo, taken on March 15, there appear to be 2 high power pedestals with CCS cabling on the left end and 2 older-generation 50 kW chargers with CCS and CHAdeMO cables on the right.
The station, located adjacent to the World’s Tallest Thermometer, is being constructed under the same legal settlement between the State of California and EVgo’s former parent company NRG Energy that accounts for most of the EVgo charging stations in the Golden State. The settlement is related to the utility grid and electricity market disruptions that occurred in California in 2001.
The high power pedestals being initially installed in Baker appear to be the same prototype model installed previously for non-public testing in 2017 near a supermarket in Fremont, California.
This closeup of an experimental high power ABB charger pedestal installed in Fremont, California, was taken in April, 2017. The actual charger cabinet is nearby.
The original conceptual illustration depicts a total of 4 high power pedestals which appear similar to the Terra HP pedestals now being marketed by Swiss electrical equipment maker ABB. An EVgo press release in 2016 said the site could eventually expand to 8 pedestals.
This conceptual image released by EVgo in 2016 depicts the design of the Baker station.
The Baker location had been scheduled for completion in June, 2017, but EVgo ran into unexpected issues with the landfill underneath the previously paved parking lot which caused a delay in the schedule.
The solar photovoltaic canopy above the station was originally intended to help power the chargers and replenish a stationary battery pack used to help reduce demand on the utility grid connection. It is unknown if the battery system has been installed yet.
Tesla has one of its new 40 pedestal Supercharger locations just half a mile down the street from EVgo’s location.
Categories: Charging
Electric Revs 
Thanks for the article Jeff!! I love having a site like this where news that is right down my alley of interest is found!
So quite likely this EVgo site will have the U.S.’s first HPFC (150+ kW) location open to the public.
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Great close-up photo of the charge pedestal. That is one massive cable assembly for the charger “cord” Almost looks like a shop-vac hose. Probably has integral glycol cooling supply and return lines for the head.
Note the warning “Only to be operated by trained personnel”. I wonder if the Baker 800 VDC stations will be self-serve or require something more. Does that mean that we’ll have old-school-style CCS attendants “pumping” the juice into our EVs? Will they do windshields? Check the ……uh, oh yeah, right. There is no dipstick:)
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The closeup photo is from a non-public site installed adjacent to a public EVgo site in Fremont, California. It’s hard to get a good photo of the ones installed in Baker unless you have a powerful telephoto lens. However, oddly, the Baker ones have a similar “prototype” sticker on them that I assume might be removed before the official opening. As far as I know, the high power pedestals will be available for self-service use.
Yes, the charging cables on the high power pedestals uses liquid cooling to keep the charge plug and cable at a comfy temperature.
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