Teddy and I hopped into the CitiCar and left town for the first time. We took a little lunch break just outside of the city at Riverton Commons shopping mall. An EV charging station is located there with four Tesla destination chargers, and one J1772 charger. I pulled up and parked the CitiCar next to a Tesla.
I fumbled a little, connecting the EVSE to the converter, but I was able to get it. The Kill A Watt meter showed that I was getting voltage. I proceeded to hook up the chargers to the batteries and saw the usual 333 watts being drawn by the five 12 volt lead acid battery chargers.
Teddy and I grabbed a bite close to the station at Checkers. When I got back to the car, I saw that the chargers were no longer getting any power. One of the C-Car owners on the forums mentioned that some charging stations required at least a kilowatt of power to continue operating. Looking back at some video footage, I saw that the power strip was upside down. I believe I may have turned it off when I started spreading out the chargers so they weren’t all setting next to each other. I’ll have to make another attempt to verify.
While I was there, the owner of the Tesla came out and talked about a Comuta-Car he had owned for awhile. He ad a few questions and we chatted a bit before I left.
The whole trip was 6.0 miles. It was shorter than I had thought given that I always looked up directions to the Walmart in the same shopping center, but would have added an extra mile to the round trip. This trip was mostly going up a gradual hill in a 45 mile zone on the way up. I held the throttle down for most of the trek.
As the efficiency of the car improves, more locations become accessible. I now know that I can make it to the two plazas across from each other with the newer big-box stores out of town. I can visit a grocery, hardware, coffee, pet, and craft store as well as a bank ATM.
Access to more locations is fairly important at the moment because my other two vehicles are disabled. The SUV was fixed two weeks ago, but had broken down on Sunday with the same problem. The hybrid car simply needs a new battery and an inspection. I also need to reattach a plastic rock/air-drag guard that is dragging along the road under it.
Trip Log
| WAYPOINT | ODOMETER | DISTANCE |
|---|---|---|
| Home | 1,214.0 | |
| EV Charging Station | 1,217.0 | 3.0 |
| Home | 1,220.0 | 3.0 |
| Total | 6.0 |
| RECHARGE | ENERGY | COST | DURATION |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rate | kWh | 9.85¢ | 0.78 mph |
| Total | 1.53 kWh | 15.5¢ | 07:39 |
| Per Mile | 254 Wh | 2.6¢ | 01:16 |
In other news
I haven’t received the Zero to J1772 adapter needed for the lithium battery charger that I purchased in July. I hadn’t heard a reply from three weeks ago when I inquired about the status of the order. From other C-Car owners I’ve talked to, this person is very responsive, but another C-Car owner was going through the same issue as I am. I decided to contact Tucson EV via PayPal communications.
Tucson EV got back to me the next day and stated that they thought it was already shipped, and that the adapter will be shipped tomorrow morning with a tracking number.
I suspect the mixup was due a shortage of the J1772 active vehicle control modules (AVC) available at the time . These are small PCB boards (AVC1) enclosed in a plastic box (AVC2) that do all of the communications for you if you want to wire up your own custom made adapter. Everywhere I looked, these things were out of stock. I found EV West had them and ordered one at the end of July. They quickly notified me that it was out of stock. It was later shipped on September 1st.
The Chez 