ChargeStop Is A New EV Charging Hub That Uses Kempower Equipment

[@LeftCoastEV]

Do you think that charging hubs like ChargeStop are the future of EV charging? Where should they be located, in cities or along high traffic roads and highways? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

[@PhilipLaitar]

If an attendant can help monitor and correct chargers that stop working I would make a point of choosing the charring stations. Available washrooms necessary. Available food and beverages is a good idea....considering you are likely to be plugged in for 20-50 minutes. A well lit, monitored, controlled station! HMMMM...overall it sounds like, I don't know, a GAS STATION.

[@LeftCoastEV]

Well yeah charging a car needs to be as easy as pumping gas and if the facilities look and function like gas stations it will be a better experience for everyone. That’s that happening in Norway and it needs to happen here too.

[@junehanzawa5165]

​​@@PhilipLaitar In the US, Buc-ee's, Wawa, Quickchek, Sheetz, Kum & Go, etc., all have chargers with all those amenities. And modern EV's are charged in 15 to 25 minutes. Obviously, EV's like the one on this video and Bolts, the Leaf, etc are not modern EV's. The Bolt uses charging technology literally from 10 years ago.

[@jayhoughton558]

Glad to finally see Kempower popping up in Canada. They make great chargers that look good and seem to be very reliable.

[@LeftCoastEV]

Totally agree. We need more Kempower in Canada this is sure. I’m also looking forward to testing the reliability during the cold winter we get here in Edmonton.

[@santerixdxd]

@@LeftCoastEV Interested in seeing how Kempower handles the Canadian winter, please do give an update when it gets cold! Here in Finland. the coldest I've used these in was -38 celsius and everything worked as expected :)

[@LeftCoastEV]

I’m planning to do just that! Here in Canada it gets coldest around end of January beginning of February so once it does please expect a video.

[@santerixdxd]

@@LeftCoastEV Cool, can’t wait!

[@jonerzinger9873]

Hey good to see you back making videos. This looks like a great concept for EV charging would look good in Merrit for sure. We recently did our first EV road trip, and found the BC charging to be reliable even Electrify Canada, (gasp) of course we’re retirees and could travel outside of peak times. Oh and for the ID.4 Plug and Charge is available on E.C. chargers and worked flawlessly for us. All in all it was a great first road trip experience.

[@LeftCoastEV]

Appreciate the kind words! I’ve decided to devote more time and effort to KZbin moving forward and hope to have at last one new video per week. Glad you enjoyed your first EV road trip. Plug and charge is really convenient and I hope more EVs will have this functionality in the future. And I agree…BC can’t be beat for the infrastructure and reliability of EV charging.

[@jonerzinger9873]

@@LeftCoastEVthanks again for the videos, glad to see you’re still enjoying your EVs in Alberta.

[@rosiekong5472]

I like how safe the location appears to be. Fence and lights add to this feeling. I would not have an issue charging here at night which I can’t say about other locations in Edmonton.

[@LeftCoastEV]

The LED lights and fencing make it much safer than other charging locations that is for sure.

[@westcoastbestcoast88]

I like this. Big fan of Kempower. Used them in Europe before. Not a fan of booking stalls to charge, the convenience store or staff members on site. Give us the basics like restroom and some vending machines and have them available 24/7 like the chargers.

[@LeftCoastEV]

Totally agree. Thanks for watching!

[@sedawk]

You are KILLING IT with the content lately - great job! Also, Edmonton is really turning the corner with EV charging. Looking forward to my next trip out there. I am waiting for the spring, but wondering if I can actually do a winter road trip in the F-150 Lightning.

[@LeftCoastEV]

Thank you for the kind words. I’m putting more effort into the channel and hoping it will keep growing! Next time you are in town go try out these new Kempower chargers and let me know how you like them. As for a winter trip in your Lightning…would be awesome if you did it and shared your experience with us!

[@jayhoughton558]

I also agree with your comments on the hours and facilities. I like the idea of staff but mostly due to preventing vandalism etc. I rarely need a convenience store or such products. They also need to be 24 hours. Most gas stations are 24/7. We need the same at charging locations. Fine with me if they only staff it during certain hours. But I need to be able to charge late at night sometimes.

[@LeftCoastEV]

This location is open 24/7 when all you want to do is charge. So this is nice. The convenience store and its staff have regular working/opening hours.

[@jayhoughton558]

@@LeftCoastEVoh, good. Their app with the hours posted makes it look like it is closed completely after 10pm at a glance. They need to add charging hours above or below it.

[@LeftCoastEV]

Yes totally agree with you they need to update the app and not make it look like the chargers are closed at night.

[@YeOldeTraveller]

First Kempower I used was in the spring of '24 in SE Michigan just a couple miles from my home. It was to charge a friend's Mustang Mach-E.

[@LeftCoastEV]

Kempower makes some of the best and most reliable charging equipment out there. Plus it’s super modular and easily upgradable in the future if the site requires more stalls.

[@simplygregsterev]

My brother in law was trying get me to fly out and check it out! I might Kempower is awesome equipment. Thats 5 handles with the 3 row cabinet. I wonder how many modules per they are running. Full cabinet is 600kw I agree the store isn’t really needed but nice to have. Pretty common here in Europe or motorway services

[@LeftCoastEV]

Let me know if you fly out to Edmonton. I was going to meet one of the people involved with ChargeStop when I went to film the video, but I think he was busy and wasn’t around. Had a few questions about the setup since I am also curious. Europe is way ahead of the curve when it comes to charging hubs like this, but here’s hoping we can catch up.

[@simplygregsterev]

@@LeftCoastEV maybe I can make something work

[@victorseal9047]

Excellent presentation. 😅

[@LeftCoastEV]

Thank you?

[@tonymcflattie2450]

I like the long ones! (Cables)

[@LeftCoastEV]

Me too. Cables that is!

[@tonymcflattie2450]

Oooh, that a nice charger! Would plug it for sure. Need to find one in Ontario

[@LeftCoastEV]

They are planning to expand across Canada so hopefully they will come to Ontario soon.

[@tkmedia3866]

I like that it is staffed, it’s often necessary for me but it’s not right for this type of small site imo. Is there any type of full service? Can the attendant help to plug and unplug? I need that type of help after longer hours on the road because of my bum leg.

[@LeftCoastEV]

I am sure the staff member would be more than happy to help you plug in. When I arrived he went to greet me which was nice.

[@LeftCoastEV]

Another thought: would be nice if there was a button in the app to alert the staff member if someone needs assistance plugging in. They would get a notification in the store and come out to help as needed.

[@Lorwildrose]

Nice charging this is what we need more of.

[@LeftCoastEV]

Agree. More locations like this are needed.

[@Lorwildrose]

@@LeftCoastEV headed to Ed next week so I’m going to try this out too. So you mentioned you can reserve a spot. Is that a must?

[@LeftCoastEV]

Let me know what you think once you try them.

[@mkwanster07]

@@Lorwildrose no, not a must

[@LeftCoastEV]

No. You can just show up and charge. The reservation is optional and costs $2 plus tax if you want to use this feature.

[@tonymcflattie2450]

I used to live in Merritt. My folks have a NACS adaptor, so they can hit the supercharger on their way through Merritt

[@LeftCoastEV]

Nice to be able to charge on the Supercharger in Merritt if your car is compatible. I have a Kia so still need to wait until next year to be able to use the Superchargers with an adapter.

[@Jeddin]

Wish they had installed with 1 CCS and 1 NACS handle instead of dual CCS. Some of the latest Kenpower installs I have seen have started featuring NACS handles.

[@LeftCoastEV]

I’m thinking that for now they want to make sure they can maximize their CCS capable car capacity but I agree with you in the long term they will need to do a 50/50 split. The new Ioniq 5 from Hyundai will come with a native NACS port so soon most other cars will follow.

[@tonymcflattie2450]

Not into booking chargers, but there should be an app based queuing system, if already at charger

[@LeftCoastEV]

This is a good idea so it makes it less confusing if all the chargers are reserved.

[@UpcraftConsulting]

Yes exactly. A queue is good idea. Likely the finer points of the queue need to be tweaked. Like what happens if someone parks in the spot without plugging in, what happens if your assigned charger is having a problem, etc. What does the screen on the charger say to let others know what is going on. But it seems like 99% of the time the fast chargers are not actually full, but we hear about the exceptions. I'm also curious if this reservation already shows something on the charger screen to indicate it's waiting for a specific guest. @LeftCoastEV next video reserve the charger and see what it tells you on the app and what it shows on the screens or if you used another phone what it says if you try to use a reserved charger etc.

[@LeftCoastEV]

Planning to do a video using the booking system. Will be posted soon!

[@mkwanster07]

I live about 10 mins away, good location for fast charging.

[@LeftCoastEV]

Check it out and let me know how your charge went!

[@mkwanster07]

@@LeftCoastEV I did charge there couple times, last one was friday night, after 11pm, I went to 7-11 store to grab some food. a skunk was nearby too

[@gingerboi8711]

I didnt know you could get a soul EV with a CCS1 port

[@LeftCoastEV]

The second gen Soul EV does. It was manufactured from 2020 onwards but apart from Canada, UK and Europe I don’t think it was widely available.

[@gingerboi8711]

@@LeftCoastEV not available for the us market then? That's a shame

[@LeftCoastEV]

@@gingerboi8711 Yes, it was at first delayed and then cancelled for the US market. If you wanted one you had to import from Canada.

[@royying]

Merritt have lots of superchargers,

[@LeftCoastEV]

Superchargers yes and it’s good if you drive a Tesla or a car that can charge via an adapter (Ford, Rivian, Chevy). Everyone else needs to rely on the two BC Hydro chargers, the not so reliable Electrify Canada (that often also throttles charging speeds) or the battery powered On The Run which I wouldn’t rely on during a road trip when I need to get back on the road quick. So, yeah, ChargeStop should definitely invest in a location there. I would use them exclusively since I had to queue up many times this summer to charge there since there were so many EVs.

[@tonymcflattie2450]

My cats name is charger, fun fact

[@tonymcflattie2450]

Oh man, my clarity doesn’t even fast charge.

[@koryleach9660]

800V up to 150kw is not exciting to me.

[@LeftCoastEV]

Agree. Kempower can do much more on 800v up to 300kW I believe so not sure why these are throttled to 150kW. Even the ChargeStop PlugShare listing mentions 300kW as an option for 800v but that wasn’t the case when I visited.

[@koryleach9660]

@@LeftCoastEV see now the 300kw capability would put a smile on my face when I’d pull up. It’s not that 150 is horrible, it’s just that one of our vehicles can take so much more than that!

[@LeftCoastEV]

Exactly and you should be choosing stations that can provide you with all the power your vehicle can take. I will go back again in the future so will check if they have added a 300kW option or not and will report back.

[@ColtonBlumhagen]

65 cents is way too expensive for edmonton.

[@LeftCoastEV]

It is. There are cheaper options out there, even Electrify Canada is less than this location.