Free EV charging station at Work!

[Vike]

Owner/operators of charging stations don't get greedy and try to charge prices equivalent to gasoline. Just because the ICE public has gotten used to ridiculously high gas prices does not mean EV owners will accept high charging prices. This is actually one of the things I'm most concerned about with owning an EV. I'm afraid public charging stations will try to make HUGE prices by chaining their rates to the average gasoline prices, thereby negating any cost savings of owning an EV. Of course, that only applies if you charge away from home.

But that's really the point - charging away from home isn't the norm for EVs given current technology (i.e., range and charge times). Up to a point (perhaps a point higher than you have in mind), the cost of charging isn't terribly relevant - indeed, it's probably worth more to an EV than gasoline itself, since it's more likely to be an urgent/emergency matter (since routine use will be at much lower at-home costs). The point of "charging for charging" is to discourage unnecessary public charging so that relatively scarce chargers are available to the parties that most need them - and being a relatively poor value (compared to charging at home) is part of the picture (or to put the point more starkly, things will probably work a bit better overall if it's cheaper for a Prius Plug-In to gas up than plug in). This might all change if/when L2&L3 charging infrastructure is considerably more built out, but I'm afraid it's the only way things can work right now - and of course, things are not at all straightforward because of laws & regulations that prohibit re-sale of electricity as such (one of the main reasons you have only seen "free" chargers).

That said, there's no reason to interfere with private parties (restaurants, shopping malls, casinos, etc.) that want to offer free L2 charging as an inducement for EV owners to frequent their establishment. But for an EV owner, that can only be regarded as a perk, not reliable infrastructure for support of longer-range travel. Pretending otherwise is sure to one day end in tears.

 

[RobbW]

Thanks, Vike. I can understand the reasoning behind charging for charging. What I'm afraid of are those emergency situations you mention. If the main bulk of non-home charging eventually becomes visitors who NEED to charge up to make it to their next destination, operators could see this as a massive profit opportunity. Kind of like being the only gas station for the next 200 miles on a lonely stretch of desert road. That station owner cold very well get greedy and decide to take advantage of the situation. However, that is probably just an extreme. I'd hope that once the charging infrastructure becomes widespread enough, and if governments intervene to at least oversee if not regulate charging practices, then the opportunities for electron gouging become fewer and rarer.

 

[Don]

I agree that so long as public recharging is free, you're going to find people who will abuse it . . . . and it sounds like many/most of those will be plug in hybrid owners who don't really need recharging to get where they're going

50 years ago, most towns had a parking meter program where you put in a dime or two for a maximum of 30 minutes to about two hours of parking, depending on the location . . . . and then a meter maid who came along and made you pay for abusing the program - Remember Paul Newman 'abusing' the parking meters in Cool Hand Luke?? :lol:

In this 'modern era' we wouldn't need dimes or meter maids. Each car could have a built-in electronic 'signature' which the public charger would recognize and not allow you to use the program if you had abused it in the past. The master computer of the system (located in St Louis and linked to every station in the country) would time when you plug in, time when you leave, bill your sessions to your credit card monthly and deny any 'bad apples' from using the service - Just like you can't check out any more library books until after you've paid your late fines, you couldn't use public chargers if you've overstayed your welcome in the past. A dollar an hour would make them a tidy profit and also help ensure people didn't stay longer than they needed. A dollar for 60 minutes, $2 for 61 minutes and so on

One day . . . . .

Don

 

[RobbW]

Yes, I'm sure the system will gradually improve, but only as quickly as the national fleet of EVs increases, which seems to be relatively slow. So, I'd expect it's going to take quite a while before ALL the kinks get worked out.

 

[jray3]

Robb, I'm glad to see that the first inconEVience didn't scare you off

Vike, I see on PlugShare that though Alburquerque has seven public charging sites, there's not much else within range. However impractical our cars may be for very long highway trips, what if there were two quick charge stations between ABQ and Los Alamos? I-MiEV DCQC charging sessions run between 12 and 19 minutes, depending on the equipment and state of charge. Those two pit stops might make a big difference in the overall utility of your car, and the cost of that 200 mile round trip.

Now that the I-5 corridor between Vancouver BC and Portland OR is pretty well 'built out' with DCQC stations, I don't expect to use gas on many more trips, thanks to public charging stations. Putting fast charge stations in other regions could be equally successful. After all, I take perhaps 8-10 road trips up n down this regional corridor per year, and only about three annual journeys outside of this region remain for long-hauling in the van. (Though I did have to wait in line behind two LEAFS on one of my DCQC stops during last week's trip to Portland.)

 

[Vike]

Vike, I see on PlugShare that though Alburquerque has seven public charging sites, there's not much else within range. However impractical our cars may be for very long highway trips, what if there were two quick charge stations between ABQ and Los Alamos? I-MiEV DCQC charging sessions run between 12 and 19 minutes, depending on the equipment and state of charge. Those two pit stops might make a big difference in the overall utility of your car, and the cost of that 200 mile round trip.

Well, nobody but nuclear scientists and their support staff really go to Los Alamos ;-) [I kid, I kid]

Seriously though, CHAdeMO stations in ABQ, Santa Fe, and some point midway between would indeed make it possible to move the car easily between the two cities, something that's more of a flatbed proposition now. I think that would be a great option to have, though I'd only use it in an emergency (say for instance the wife drives to Santa Fe, breaks down and needs a ride home ASAP), since I'd normally just take our Prius for such a drive (the i-MiEV being nice enough around town, but a bit unpleasant banging along at 75 for an hour or so, range notwithstanding).

Your comments suggest I may have been careless in what I wrote earlier, if it left the impression that I am opposed to or unenthusiastic about public charging in principle. Rather, I'm just recognizing that public L2 chargers remain a fairly rare commodity in most places outside CA and a few other urban centers (something folks in these better-blessed locations need to keep in mind when addressing a wider audience), and so have some concerns about the most effective way to allocate that scarce resource. In the current environment, I think a free charger is pretty likely to get Volted, and so is of little value to the BEV community as true "infrastructure."

Those seven public charging sites you mention in ABQ, by the way, are mostly "Yeah, you can plug into my outdoor 110 outlet if you like." Last I checked, there were only two Level 2 EVSE public sites - one put in by the city downtown, and a second at the Latitudes gas/cafe/convenience store (apparently some forward-thinking sorts) in neighboring Rio Rancho; I believe both sites can charge two cars at a time.