After a nice afternoon out getting things done, I had my first unfortunate EV event...

ICEd at the Chili's in Lowell, MA : Two pickups blocking both ChargePoint spots! >:-(

In there defense there was no signage saying "Electric vehicle parking only" - so I see this more as a public awareness issue for now....

Luckily the Chili's in Westford, MA was close, and when I got there both spots were open so I got in my charging and pre-conditioning, and came back to a nicely warmed up car :-)

But the second spot was ICEd by then with an SUV someone left their little white dog in - ugh!

Going to have to find a way to deal with this... of to the BMW forum to post for advice :-)

Approved the quote and got the charger ordering process started.  Ends up a bit more than half the original Aerovironment quote, but I get a much nicer charger! B-)

Site visit from DK Power today - nice, easy, quick... should have a quote back soon! B-)

Went off on two very important errands today, and stopped again at the Pru to charge. This time I watched the ChargePoint web site live - you can see how much power the car is consuming.

Wanting to beat traffic out of Boston, I got a bit antsy and left before the car had finished charging.  On the highway home it was EXTREMELY windy, and even though I tried to moderate my speed it still chewed up a bunch of juice.
When I finally got off  the highway, I looked at my miles remaining on the NAV computer and charge percent remaining and it was just about 1-to-1, so I made the decision to skip the Chilli’s at that exit that had a charger and head for home.

I ALMOST made it :-P
I learned several VERY IMPORTANT lessons today:
1) Don't count on 1 mile for every 1% of battery left, especially under 20% on WINDY days! :-\
2) BMW Road Side assistance is not going to save you when you live in farm country like me so...
3) Always have a backup plan: AAA Gold ;-)
4) If you end up at 0% battery and "reduced" drive mode, pull over and save your power so you can get the car in and out of NEUTRAL for the nice flatbed tow truck driver that comes to save your ARSE! ;-) LoL

Only took me about 3 hours to get that last mile to my house.... SO CLOSE!

Email from the distributor (Green Power Technology) and installer for my area (DK Power) - setting up the appointment for a site review this week.

Got back to the car after dinner and noticed this on my phone:
"The station at which your vehicle is charging, PRUDENTIAL CTR / P1-RED LEVEL D, has detected that the vehicle is drawing very little power. This typically means the vehicle is fully charged, but may mean it is configured for delayed charging. The vehicle has accepted 16.326393 kWh and has been plugged in for 03:35:11 (hh:mm:ss)"

I'm really liking the "brain" in this Coulomb unit :-)  I think it's going to be handy to have at home given how far along the MyBMW app seems to be :-P

In to the city for a business dinner and check this out:

Eight operational chargers, and right in the heart of the primo valet parking area!  And they even blocked off the spots so we wouldn't get ICED! B-)

Now all you need to know how to do is get the best parking rates with a coupon ;-)

Finally got word from Coulomb - approved for the DoE grant!  Just a few more steps and I'll be charging up like a Pro B-)

After some lunch and shopping, figured I had enough charge to get home, but silly me I just unplugged the car - and a minute later I had an email and an SMS message from ChargePoint:
"The station at which your vehicle is charging, PORTER SQUARE / SHOPPING CENTER, has detected that the plug has been removed from the vehicle, and therefore your vehicle is no longer charging. Please physically inspect the vehicle, the charging station, and restart the charging session if necessary. You can avoid this notification in the future by using your ChargePass card to end the session, before unplugging the connector from the vehicle. "

Very cool!

In the mean time I take my first long (one way if I don't find a charger) trip into Boston!  It's a beautiful day, and I easily manage 1 mile per kWh, and finally make it to my first ever ChargePoint fill up:

The only issue? The description on the ChargePoint web search engine doesn't describe the location of the charger real well - so I end up driving around the parking lot until I spot it camouflaged behind some winter bare trees and a tall utility box.

And I arrive home to my second surprise.  A quote on the charger I was angling for:

ControlMod - J1772, 70A, ZIGBEE, and data logging

But the hardware alone is more than my original Aeorvironment quote! :'-(

At this point I resign myself to 110V charging, and decide to wait it out on the ChargePoint/Coulomb DoE grant because even though that will be a 30A charger, it will come with all the data logging and I'll only have to pay for install.

Finally delivery day!  But it's not such great weather - so we start out with an indoor photo op B-)

Then a quick break in the rain for a few more pix outside:

Thanks Marc and Wagner BMW!

Now move those cars before someone gets a ticket! ;-)

Another hiccup - MA RMV had some problems today so will have to wait until tomorrow...

Oh well - gives me one more day to get the garage cleaned up! :-P

Surprise call today - my car is at the dealer!

Bad news - you have to come sign paperwork, pay, and you CAN NOT take it until we get all the MA registration and inspection stuff done!  :-P (sigh) - oh well, only a couple more days...

And *MAN* - do these wheels have to GO!

I'm officially assigned a car (VIN) and it's at the port! B-)

My research turned up a few interesting things...

1) You can absolutely get J1772 chargers that will push 70A right now - and even better from a local company: http://evse.controlmod.com/
2) Turns out there is a DoE grant program offering free Coulomb chargers to new EV owners: http://chargepointamerica.com/search-zip-code.php

And the research continues - but hey, no car yet so... what's the rush? :-P