Article about poor charging etiquette

[hybridbear]

This article is quite negative about EV drivers & implies that EV drivers lack manners...
http://www.telegram.com/article/20151011/NEWS/151019862

 

[jmueller065]

That must be going around since I saw a similar article last week (perhaps the same article published in multiple places).

 

[breeves002]

I saw this yesterday. Good for me because here in St. Louis there are like 5 electric cars, excluding the 10000 teslas and way too many chargers compared to those 5. However its still not enough.

 

[hybridbear]

I saw this yesterday. Good for me because here in St. Louis there are like 5 electric cars, excluding the 10000 teslas and way too many chargers compared to those 5. However its still not enough.

Here in Mpls I have never seen full charging stations. I believe that ones in downtown Mpls do get filled daily, though, but I don't work downtown so I haven't observed it. A few times I've seen Teslas parked in charging spots without being plugged in. If I had a Tesla I would plug in if I were parking in the space, otherwise I'd park somewhere else. A local grocery chain that is installing EV chargers at many of their stores has generally placed the chargers in such a way that many more vehicles can park with the chargers accessible than there are charging ports. That allows more vehicles to park there & share the charging cables if needed.

 

[michael]

I know several EV drivers who park in "EV only" spots without charging. I've told them this is very poor form but they persist.

 

[triangles]

This article is quite negative about EV drivers & implies that EV drivers lack manners...
http://www.telegram.com/article/20151011/NEWS/151019862

Well... if the shoe fits... The article is also critical of ICE drivers who take up EV charging spots. The easiest thing to do to combat this would be for them to stop putting the charging stations in prime locations. It would be great if they put them at the far end of the parking lot. Also putting them were more than 1 spot can access a particular charger would be a good idea. Plus as the article points out, most charge stations are the equivalent of a gas station giving away free gas but it just takes hours instead of minutes to pump. Of course you're gonna have people fighting for the free stuff.

I'm always annoyed by the Volts hogging the chargers at the Detroit airport. I'm not stupid or naive enough to expect them to be free when I fly out on a Monday morning but it sure would be nice if they were so I didn't have to wait 2-3hrs for a charge when I get back since I live about 65 miles from the airport.

 

[jmueller065]

I'm always annoyed by the Volts hogging the chargers at the Detroit airport. I'm not stupid or naive enough to expect them to be free when I fly out on a Monday morning but it sure would be nice if they were so I didn't have to wait 2-3hrs for a charge when I get back since I live about 65 miles from the airport.

This past weekend I was at a local mall that has 4 charge spots. All 4 spots were taken by Volts (good thing we didn't drive the FFE). In this case the 4 spots are right next to the valet and thus are primo spots (I didn't check to see if all the Volts were actually charging or not).

 

[damania]

This article is quite negative about EV drivers & implies that EV drivers lack manners...
http://www.telegram.com/article/20151011/NEWS/151019862

Well... if the shoe fits... The article is also critical of ICE drivers who take up EV charging spots. The easiest thing to do to combat this would be for them to stop putting the charging stations in prime locations. It would be great if they put them at the far end of the parking lot. Also putting them were more than 1 spot can access a particular charger would be a good idea. Plus as the article points out, most charge stations are the equivalent of a gas station giving away free gas but it just takes hours instead of minutes to pump. Of course you're gonna have people fighting for the free stuff.

I'm always annoyed by the Volts hogging the chargers at the Detroit airport. I'm not stupid or naive enough to expect them to be free when I fly out on a Monday morning but it sure would be nice if they were so I didn't have to wait 2-3hrs for a charge when I get back since I live about 65 miles from the airport.

I'm in favor of charging the same rate as home for electricity. Then the freeloaders would disappear. Always available at places where there was a fee. ALWAYS.

 

[michael]

While others will disagree, I absolutely agree with you. I'm never confident about the availability of public charging, so if I can't do a trip on chargers with dependable access (my home, my work, a friend, etc) I will take the Volt.

Public charging should be at cost comparable or higher than home charging, and there should be a steep parking fee once charging is complete. Blink is now charging 8 cents a minute for sitting on a charging station after completion.

 

[campfamily]

there should be a steep parking fee once charging is complete. Blink is now charging 8 cents a minute for sitting on a charging station after completion.

This is how you fix "camping out" at the charging station. And, this charge should be in addition to whatever the normal fee is for parking, if there is one (same as for an ICE vehicle).

Keith

 

[pjam3]

In California, unless you drive a Tesla, most of the charging stations aren't free anymore. It is rare to find one that doesn't charge and some of them have jacked up the cost to like $1-2 per hour. I used one station in the past and it cost me like $6 to charge for a little over 3 hours. Or you can find a free charging station, but have to pay $10 to park. So not really free. Plus Blink and EvGo and ChargePoint all have membership fees. BLink you can just get a code, but it costs more money per hour compared to if you're a member. And Membership for some of them are like $5.99 a month. Not terrible, but if you're still paying $5.99 a month plus $1 per hour, it isn't really worth it.

I guess the rest of the country still has free charging, but in California, there are far too many EVs and companies like Ecotality & Blink already went out of business or went bankrupt. And others planned on thousands of charging stations, but ran out of money before hitting that mark.

When I didn't have a garage to charge, I relied on all of these charging stations. I had no other option. It was a pain waiting 4-8 hours in places where you could not do anything. Abandoned office buildings. Plazas with no stores in the middle of nowhere. But you could find some free ones here and there, but those days are long gone here. Like I said, it's rare to find a charging station that's free here now. It's also rare to find them empty.

 

[hybridbear]

ChargePoint all have membership fees.

What membership fee? There's no membership fee for ChargePoint here...

 

[damania]

It is rare to find one that doesn't charge and some of them have jacked up the cost to like $1-2 per hour. I used one station in the past and it cost me like $6 to charge for a little over 3 hours.

$2 an hour is a great price at 6.6 kwh. That's $.30 per kwh which is only a bit higher than charging at home.

 

[hybridbear]

$2 an hour is a great price at 6.6 kwh. That's $.30 per kwh which is only a bit higher than charging at home.

Fair point, but do you find many public L2 EVSEs that get to 6.6? Most ChargePoint stations around here are 6.6 kW shared on a dual handle station. Often times the voltage is only 195 V or so, which means that you don't get the full 6.6 kW even if no one else is charging. A station that bills by the hour but has split handles where someone could come & siphon off half of your charging power would stink.

Some free ChargePoint stations are even limited to 5.0 kW shared. I'm not sure why a business would choose to do that, unless it was related to their electrical circuitry & what they could support, but I'd think that when installing new EVSEs, you'd be able to run sufficient wiring to support a minimum of 6.6 kW.

 

[WattsUp]

ChargePoint all have membership fees.

What membership fee? There's no membership fee for ChargePoint here...

Perhaps he's thinking of the $25 "deposit" that needs to made in order to open a ChargePoint account. But, these funds are then used to pay for charging, and periodically replenished from your credit card.

So, not quite a membership fee, or at least is like one that "carries over" from month to month if you don't use it. Blink's membership fee, on the other hand, is "use it or lose it".

 

[hybridbear]

ChargePoint all have membership fees.

What membership fee? There's no membership fee for ChargePoint here...

Perhaps he's thinking of the $25 "deposit" that needs to made in order to open a ChargePoint account. But, these funds are then used to pay for charging, and periodically replenished from your credit card.

So, not quite a membership fee, or at least is like one that "carries over" from month to month if you don't use it. Blink's membership fee, on the other hand, is "use it or lose it".

I thought about this too. We never use pay ChargePoint stations, so they've never charged our credit card. They don't charge the $25 unless you use a pay station.

 

[damania]

$2 an hour is a great price at 6.6 kwh. That's $.30 per kwh which is only a bit higher than charging at home.

Fair point, but do you find many public L2 EVSEs that get to 6.6? Most ChargePoint stations around here are 6.6 kW shared on a dual handle station. Often times the voltage is only 195 V or so, which means that you don't get the full 6.6 kW even if no one else is charging. A station that bills by the hour but has split handles where someone could come & siphon off half of your charging power would stink.

Some free ChargePoint stations are even limited to 5.0 kW shared. I'm not sure why a business would choose to do that, unless it was related to their electrical circuitry & what they could support, but I'd think that when installing new EVSEs, you'd be able to run sufficient wiring to support a minimum of 6.6 kW.

You're right not all of them are the same and a lot of them do not charge at max rate. But these are public chargers that I use on rare occasions. I'm happy with paying a rate up to 2x my home charge rate knowing there are extra costs to having a public charger. And even then I am not going to charge all the way, just enough to get me home.