Westfield new installations

[wattsaname]

Apparently all chargers are now installed

BMW Announcement

[Paul9]

Great news!

I just checked plugshare and the Warringah Mall charger doesn't seem to show up? The 3112 wall outlet does show but not the Chargepoint charger?

[wattsaname]

Great news!

I just checked plugshare and the Warringah Mall charger doesn't seem to show up? The 3112 wall outlet does show but not the Chargepoint charger?

It is showing on Chargepoint (when logged in) but as "real time status unknown".

The BMW APP also shows this location.

[Ultralights]

i take it no one has added it to Plughsare yet?

[Greg partridge]

I have added it

[Ultralights]

Checked int Miranda Chargepoint station, and all spots have been rebranded with BMW, painted black.   still not complaining though, good to see, looks like BMW might have seen what Tesla is doing, not just making EV's but also building a infrastructure network as well.

[Feng]

I saw the photo you put up on Plugshare. Was the car park full or was the Prado owner being a jerk?

[Ultralights]

Prado Owner being a Jerk.

[Jeff Owen]

With the growing charging network in Brisbane, I decided that it was time to make our car J1772 capable. On Thursday, I made an adaptor and headed off to Westfield Carindale to try it. The carpark was packed, yet I had 4 spaces to myself right next to the entrance to the shopping centre. I am sure this will change as EV numbers increase.

The EV parking is next to a major pedestrian route through the car park, and it was interesting to listen to the positive comments from people passing. A few people came over for a closer look and one of them, Callum, took the photo below.

After disconnecting, the Chargepoint display showed I had been charging for 1 hour 24 minutes, and had consumed 2.552 kWh.

Overall it was a very positive experience and far more civilised than my usual practise of running an extension cord around parked cars to an outlet in a more remote car park.

On Friday, I made some changes that meant I could lock the back hatch and leave the car charging and unattended while I went for a walk through the shopping centre. The display showed 1 hour 25 minutes and 2.346 kWh.

[Jeff Owen]

In the above post, I omitted to mention a small incident that did put a bit of a dampener on my otherwise positive charging experience.

As I returned to my car, a Commodore wagon was parked diagonally in two of the charging bays, one of them being the one my car was parked in. The occupants were just leaving the car so I politely pointed out that they were parked in bays reserved for EV charging and that it could be inconvenient for any EVs that turned up requiring charging. They told me "we won't be long" and walked off and I left it at that.

About ten minutes later, the young male driver returned and started to reverse out. He then stopped, lowered the passenger window and said something to me. Unfortunately the content of what he had to say was lost in a tirade of words that I can't repeat here. He then stopped the car, leaped out, ran around the car and charged at me screaming he was going to kill me. He stopped just in front of me and kept yelling that he was going to rip my throat out.

When he got no response, he returned to his car and continued to reverse out. He then stopped and repeated the scenario. I think this happened three times by which time his car was blocking traffic and quite an audience had formed. He then returned to his car and drove off. Fortunately, spinning tyres and a revving engine gave plenty of warning and nobody stepped out in front of the car. Unfortunately, he realised in time that the car park had a finite length and was just able to stop before hitting the concrete wall at the end.

I have been reluctant to report on this incident as it could create a negative impression of the new charging facilities. The reality is that the other driver probably had no idea what an EV is, and that they require charging. He clearly had anger management, psychological or substance issues and this incident could have occurred anywhere in the car park for any number of reasons. However, it does show that we need to be very careful when dealing with errant IC drivers.

On a more positive note, we returned to the shopping centre yesterday for shopping and to pay a bill. We would have done these tasks closer to home if not for the charging facilities. A clear benefit to the centre for installing them. One bay was occupied by an IC car, but shortly after we arrived, a Holden Volt turned up and plugged in.   

[evric]

Hi Jeff,

That must have been a horrific experience.

Eric

[bladecar]

Hi Jeff,

Won't the Commodore driver's self-worth be tested when the driverless cars turn up.   I know it's jumping the gun (at least here) but much of the talk online is about how far down the track numerous companies are with driverless technology.

They are past 'will we - won't we' to do with ev's.

It seems the electronics and computer aspect has pushed vehicle types past those currently existing, and here the time frame seems to be 5 to 10 years.    Many thousands of miles/kilometers have been travelled already with test-bed driverless cars (complete with driver) and some mob in Miami? are about to be ferried about for free in a test of a driverless service.

I think the difficulty is how to tolerate this type of change in the middle of the every-man-for-himself environment that the Government has introduced over the last 30 years which is against the grain of how we like to think of ourselves.

[poprock]

Looking at Jeff Owen's pic of his Honda, is that the Honda version of the Sherpa/Suzuki Alto/Daihatsu/MightyBoy Body? I have only ever seen one Honda 2 door locally and the 4 door Daihatsu version.

[coulomb]

I have only ever seen one Honda 2 door locally and the 4 door Daihatsu version.

It could be an older model. The car's EV Album entry has an index in the low three digits: http://www.evalbum.com/385.

I'm not saying Jeff is old, but I wouldn't be surprised if he had a 5 digit phone number, and Jeff himself might have a 6 digit serial number

[Ultralights]

In the above post, I omitted to mention a small incident that did put a bit of a dampener on my otherwise positive charging experience.
About ten minutes later, the young male driver returned and started to reverse out. He then stopped, lowered the passenger window and said something to me. Unfortunately the content of what he had to say was lost in a tirade of words that I can't repeat here. He then stopped the car, leaped out, ran around the car and charged at me screaming he was going to kill me. He stopped just in front of me and kept yelling that he was going to rip my throat out.

When he got no response, he returned to his car and continued to reverse out. He then stopped and repeated the scenario. I think this happened three times by which time his car was blocking traffic and quite an audience had formed. He then returned to his car and drove off.    

A similar experience happened to me yesterday, at the Shell harbour charge station at the Stockland shopping centre, when i plugged in, i was forced to park a slight angle due to the side that suited the outlander being iced by a 4 door ute,   as i was taking some pics for plugshare and checking in, the young man who owned the ute returned, i just looked at him, then looked at the charger,   he got the message, then told me to F#*%#ing unplug his car for him! his mates laughed, and he got in his car and drove off.

it must be something about Sydney, or NSW drivers, similar attitudes are regularly shown towards cyclists as well...     anyway, back to topic.

[Feng]

That doesn't surprise me coming from a ute owner in Shell Harbour. It comforts me to know that when fuel prices go up we'll be the ones getting the last laugh.

[offgridQLD]

Shame you had to put up with that Jeff.

Perhaps it's some kind of small car syndrome. I never have any issues with other drivers on the road or in car parks driving my larger 4wd ute.

Though after purchasing the Imiev (small car) from the get go I noticed way more aggression directed at me on the road. Tailgating even if I was doing way in excess of the posed speed limit.

I had some nutcase chase me around a shopping center car park because apparently I wasn't conforming to how he wanted me to be driving my car.

Though I never really did understand what his issue was as it just became a long string of profanity chest beating and neanderthal inspired dancing around his clap out Falcon.

[Paul9]

Sorry to hear about your unfortunate incident Jeff!

Red Bull has a lot to answer for!

Makes it difficult to resist the temptation to let a few tyres down!

[Rusdy]

Perhaps it's some kind of small car syndrome.

Good point, never thought of that. Bullying for adults. q4ber will have problem with his Tango then. That's bully magnet!!

[nuggetgalore]

not necessarily on topic "westfield" , but since this is has been a method I think should be implement at every shopping centre carpark , here a link to a WA solar shaded carpark.

https://au.news.yahoo.com/wa/a/35239927 ... tre/#page1

Not actually done the calculations, just back of envelop scribble tells me that the combined carpark/ building roof space would be the biggest solar farm Australia wide. And all that with the multi profit of
customer satisfaction, less energy use to cool the cars, power generation,lower transmission losses for running the centre etc.

[VeCharge]

These look good http://www.stauntyredeflators.com.au/index.php