Evidence of early trenching work at one of EV Connect’s pending DC charging sites in Tulare, CA.
EV Connect, one of four companies awarded California Energy Commission (CEC) grants in 2016 for DC fast charger installation, has built 3 of the 11 originally proposed sites meant to be installed by 2019 as construction deadlines loom. The company is now scrambling to install chargers at 6 more of the locations before the end of November, according to commission staff.
The grant program is known as GFO-15-601. The other companies included in the program were ChargePoint, EVgo, and Recargo. A related grant program won by the same four companies, known as GFO-15-603, has later deadlines.
ChargePoint was the first of the companies to install and open a “601” grant site in late 2017 at a Target store in Redding along Interstate 5 in Norther California. EVgo got a later start on their sites along Interstate 5 but is said to be largely on track. Recargo ran into delays and failed to build their eight sites along the southern stretch of US 101.
See also: CA issued “stop work” orders against Recargo on 22 state-funded charging sites
EVConnect’s sites under the “601” grant mostly run down CA 99 between Sacramento and Bakersfield although there is one more location in San Clemente along the coast south of Los Angeles.
According to CEC staff, the general deadline for installation of the charging equipment under the grant program is this month and final reports from the chosen grantees are due by the end of March next year.
EV Connect will not build two locations originally intended for the Sacramento suburb of Elk Grove and the nearby town of Lodi. CEC staff says the commission was told the company was unable to secure final site hosting locations in those areas.
EV Connect’s originally intended locations under the “601” grant are shown with purple markers running along California’s Central Valley down state highway 99. One additional site is shown just south of Los Angeles. This unofficial interactive map of the CEC grant sites was created by “miimura”, who posts at TeslaMotorsClub.com and other internet automotive forums.
Of the three existing EV Connect sites with equipment funded under the CEC grant, two are already powered up and one appears to be complete but is not yet online.
These installed, but not yet powered-up, chargers are located on the backside of a Delhi Unified School District office at 16491 Schendel Avenue, Delhi, CA.
Several of the locations are at hotels or their adjacent restaurants including sites in Tulare, Kingsburg, Visalia, and San Clemente.
This Fairfield Inn & Suites is located at 216 Ventura Court, Kingsburg, CA. Two DC fast chargers just to the left are not visible in this photo.
Three of the sites are being installed at Love’s Truck Stop locations in the towns of Ripon, Madera, and Tulare.
The planned EV Connect site in Madera is apparently being installed at a Love’s Truck Stop near 24500 Avenue 17 which is still in the early stages of construction.
According to commission staff, EV Connect has obtained site hosting agreements, finished the design, gotten utility approvals, purchased charging equipment, and signed construction contracts for all nine of their currently planned locations.
These two DC chargers and a dual-cabled J1772 AC charging stand are powered up at the Wyndham Hotel in Visalia at 9000 W Airport Drive. However, early reports on PlugShare say they are not yet operating reliably.
The final 11 site addresses included in the “601” EV Connect grant are listed below (another 9 sites from the later “603” grant are not included here):
9146 East Stockton Blvd Elk Grove, California 95624 (removed from project)
2415 W. Kettleman Lane Lodi, California 95242 (removed from project)
1553 W Colony Road Ripon, California 95366
16491 Schendel Avenue Delhi, California 95315
24500 Avenue 17 Madera, California 93638 (approximate address)
216 Ventura Court Kingsburg, CA 93631
9000 W Airport Drive Visalia, California 93277
14390 County Line Road Delano, California 93215
2700 S Blackstone Street Tulare, CA 93274
3540 Rosedale Highway Bakersfield, California 93308
111 S Avenue De La Estrella San Clemente, California 92672
Categories: Charging
Electric Revs 
Jeff, great job. What about the EV Connect station at Inyokern airport? I didn’t see that mentioned. I think they also had a station in Mojave but I could be mistaken about that one.
Paul Toronto
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The EV Connect sites at Inyokern and Mojave are part of the “603” grant that carries later deadlines. In this article I focused on just the “601” grant sites since they are at facing imminent deadlines and only 3 of the sites have been installed so far.
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It’s now nearly the middle of February 2020 and EV Connect has not opened any more sites on their “601” grant. The 3 mentioned in the story are the only ones open today. They are up to 3 open sites on their “603” grant. The site at the Jelly Belly factory in Fairfield opened recently on top of the Palmdale and Blythe sites that have been open for a while.
In contrast, it appears that ChargePoint has completed their “601” sites. The Lakehead-Lakeshore site is the only one that is not active in their app, but shows some activity on PlugShare. They have also opened at least 19 of their “603” sites with 34 more to go.
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Actually, I suspect they have made at least some progress but they are so inept that neither their phone app or website has a map showing their locations and they probably haven’t bothered to enter their own site info into PlugShare.
One of the 6 new sites they were supposed to open is the one in San Clemente. I visited it in November and it was already installed but not powered up yet. Yet it has no PlugShare entry. I’m guessing it’s probably operational now but I don’t know for sure.
I should certainly do a follow-up story.
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