Pasadena Water & Power Denies Charging Cable Installation

[wg2345]

Well I was very excited because it seemed that I got lucky and was one of the 150 or so that got allotted the elusive charging cables we've all been waiting for. Apparently, other Pasadena area Mini-E customers experienced the same thing today during our Building Department inspections:

- Basically, the cables which are UL-certified do not actually have any labeling that indicates this or what type of cable it is --> so they basically denied the permits and won't allow the cables to be installed
- The electrical contractors installing the cables are going by the letter of the law and are therefore not installing them. (Of course, if this gets worked and it gets rescheduled and they DO install them they get paid again so in some ways they have an incentive to go on with this delay)
- My own electrical contractor who was there reports that the cable is relatively standard (the plugs are special) and said that equivalent properly certified cables are readily available in the market (again, not the plugs). He even offered to go out and get one and use the plugs, but of course that didn't fly with the electrical contractor.
- So, bottom line is no cable installation for me at this time. I've called CFC and the Mini dealer and we'll see where it goes from there.

Sounds like regardless I'll hopefully get a car by June 26th since BMW needs to deliver them. I'll charge it off a 110V outlet which should be sufficient for my 40 mile rountrip commute (will charge at work too). It's even more enticing since I may not have make the lease payment until the charger works out ok.

In my opinion, the real terrible thing about all of this is that after dealing with all these ridiculous governmental/technical issues I have the sinking suspicion that BMW will determine this whole experiment a failure and never make an electric vehicle again. It's all very sad that everyone agrees that we should be moving in this direction with automotive transport, but there is such an accumulation of red tape preventing it from happening.

BTW - those of you in LADWP and Edison areas have nothing to worry about. The contractor said approvals in those areas (including a block from my house!) were going ahead fine.

All I can do is laugh ... sadly

[ElectroBoy]

That's what you get for living in the People's Republic!

I find it endlessly ironic and amusing that lowly bureaucracy always seems to trump the lofty City-father ideals of sustainability . . . at least in the short run.

Hopefully, this is a very temporary setback for you. As for BMW - at the LA Event they noted that they are learning a lot about INFRASTRUCTURE - as a gas-car company, they never had to worry about that stuff before (which is an interesting observation in and of itself). Hopefully they see this as a logical (and probably necessary, regulations-wise) evolution in the business. I don't think there's any going back at this point.

[Edjurye]

wg2345,
My city inspection (Irvine CA) was rejected yesterday due to the cable and charger UL listing issue. The ClipperCreek charger does not have a UL sticker (we missed P. 15 of the manual that shows the UL listing) and the cable has no UL listing info whatsoever :(

I called ClipperCreek yesterday and spoke to Gary Gruber - very knowledgeable and courteous. According to Gary, the cable is still under UL registration process AND if the inspector reviews the entire charge system as a whole, they can reject the install.

I've given up on CFCI - again no answers left on Enid's work and cell voicemails. I'm firing off my email to EVERYONE today - and will post updates on my blog and facebook group.

[wg2345]

CFCI called me at noon to say that Pasadena was ready to inspect & pass the cable. They scheduled it at 2pm even though I couldn't be there. Along with the electrical contractor, the cable was approved and when I got home it was sitting there attached to the 32A Clipper Creek charger.
Didn't look ANY different from the cable they denied over 3 weeks ago. Wonder if the fact that they're getting 5 of these Mini E's had anything to do with it eh?

I've been using the car to commute to work daily with the occasional use cable which has actually worked fine. So yesterday evening, I charged the car with the 32A charger in about 1 hour (it was at 75% to begin with). Took if for a fun spin up Mount Wilson where I was very impressed by the level of regen feeding back into the battery. What a hoot that drive was. Without the 32A charger there is no way I could have done that. Guess I'll start making payments now soon enough.