Toyota Dealerships' Electric Vehicle Chargers

Correct me if I am wrong but isn't Nissan currently selling a model that needs a charger, whilst Toyota is not selling any model that can use a charger?

Once Toyota sells a model that even can use a charger, I would expect Toyota dealers to start considering them. Call me cynical, but 'next week' seems far sighted in a car dealership.

 

The Nissan Leaf uses a special fast charger standard called CHAdeMo which is very popular in Japan - but nowhere else. [ame=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CHAdeMO]CHAdeMO - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia[/ame]

Other electric vehicles coming to the market don't use this and are not compatible with it. Perhaps in the future but unlikely as CHAdeMO chargers are very expensive (think $25k!).

Perhaps you might consider a 240 volt supply for your future EV as this increases the charging time. As the market is moving very quickly at the moment you might not want to do anything until you actually buy an EV.

 

One of the selling points for the PHV is you don't need a quick charger for it. I wouldn't expect to see any going in until they have a different model coming out that might need it.

 

Here in the US the Nissan Leaf and the Chevy Volt both use the standard J1772 charger (it can run at 220v or 110v) and Nissan dealerships are installing these. When it comes out, the PHEV Prius will use the same charging connector and I would expect Toyota dealerships to install these around the time they start selling the cars.

The CHAdeMo fast charger is a high current DC charger and is an option on the US Leaf. The Mitsubishi I will also offer the CHAdeMo as an option when they start delivering here later this year. Again the J1772 will be the standard charger for the I.

 

This information is not accurate, or at least not clear to somebody who may not be familiar with the Leaf. The Leaf can use 3 different types of chargers, we call them level1,2, and 3. The Chademo is only used for level-3. Otherwise the level 1 and 2 chargers are fully compatible between the Nissan Leaf, Chevy Volt, Toyota Prius PHV, Mitsubishi i-Miev, and many others.

As to the original poster's question, I would expect them to start installing them a few months before the vehicles start showing up.

 

I used the term FAST charger to make it stand out from 'normal' charging such as from a normal household supply which all existing EVs have.

Perhaps I should have stressed that there are two (or more) options available - sorry.

 

Not so fast there Grumpy
Here's me ... just a couple weeks ago using the quick charge (CHAdeMo) station down here in So Cal ... just 5 miles or so from where I work:







There's a bunch of the local folks using it now days. Mitsubishi installed the station ... it's under their solar powered awning ... and the Mitsubishi iMiev has the same port. Think about how forward thinking Mitsubishi is !! . . . installing a station even BEFORE their EV is available. Now, THAT's forward thinking ... and I commend Mitsubishi for it. That's what I call "throwing down the gauntlet" toward Toyota. So, C'mon Toyota .... do likewise!

That said, a PHEV will NEVER get a quick charge port. It's not necessary. The traction pack doesn't need it because they're smaller than EV packs. Besides, PHEV's can still scoot down the road when out of e-juice ... where as EV's ?? e-juice is all they got. Here's to hoping Toyota will get with the program and start installing 240v 'J' charge stations soon!

As for quick charge costs - They can run as low as $15,000 - but then there's installation. Trenching & pulling 480v power lines CAN nearly double that cost.

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Totally agree.

 

Toyota of Santa Monica has been on there for a while...

LAcarGUY – Toyota Santa Monica location « Electric Car Stations

 

Well ... can you really count Toyota of H? After all, those crazies actually sold RAV4-ev's back in the late '90's early 2000's. And (gulp) they even service them today! That's crazy talk ... being so progressive. You can't expect other dealerships to be progressive like that.

#1 - ICE service repair is the bread & butter of auto industries. How much money can you make on an EV ... wipers? cabin air filters? You've no 12K / 24K / 36K service routine where you change oils, and other such expensive consumables. EV's go for maybe 100K before the one and only big hit ... the battery comes due. Heck, our 2 hybrids are bad enough with their insentient reliability. What will dealerships do when EV's are more popular?!?

#2 - Just because Nissan and Mitsubishi began their charge station infrastructure prior to their cars rolling out doesn't mean Toyota has to be forward thinking.



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You guys have any idea where or if the stations currently exist in NY? Appreciate the feedback.

 

I would just go to google maps and search for "electric car charging, ny ny", a bunch of places show up...

*edit* Actually, there is a way to search for just electric car charging stations on google maps, what I suggested above doesn't work so well. It's a catagory... I just can't remember how to do it...

 

The category in Google Maps is: Electric Vehicle Charging Station.

 

I didn't see any category for charging stations, but when I did a search for "electric vehicles charging stations ventura, CA it did give me a list of EV charging stations that looked relatively accurate. My big issue is that they didn't list the type of charger. When I look on evchargernews.com none of the sites were listed as having J1772 compatible chargers so they wouldn't help anyone with a plug-in Prius Just listing charger locations isn't a big help if you get there and the charger is either incompatible or down.

Noel

 

Each listing on the left lists it's category. For example, in your search, the first listing is:
R E BARBER FORD
3440 East Main Street, Ventura, CA (805) 642-6701 ‎ · barberonline.com
Category: Electric Vehicle Charging Station

I'm not aware of a way to explicitly search by category.

 

Hi all, We have two level-2 chargers at our Toyota of Hollywood dealership and three level-2 chargers at our Toyota Santa Monica dealership. Next month, we will add a 6th charger at our Fisker Santa Monica location. Also, all of our chargers are FREE to the public.

 

Shweet !! What's Toyotas stance on charging? Will they allow other car manufacturers to charge?