Frustrated getting burned by public charging.

T

Tommyb13662

New Member
Not physical burns... pocket book just buring up money. I Just bought an i8. Yea its only roughly 20 miles on electric charge. But i like to plug in where i can. However i seem to get burned and this never helps save $. I find it so much cheaper and cost effective to just fill up and get the 40+mpg you get in comfort mode. The other day plugged in at the hotel i stayed at advertizing free charging. Missed the fine print of 3$/ hour fee once the car is charged which only is usually hour 45 max at most chargers. So overnigh cost me 26$ parking not electric... was the only ev there... same shopping with the gf. Plugged in at a market in cali but they charged 5$ for the electric and again 10$/hr for "parking" once charged. Even when nobody else was using them. I find the fee ridiculously high for that 20 miles of ev only driving. The charging costs as much or more than a gallon of gas. Now plugging in at home noticed zero change in my bill so yea leaving home i get free "feels like free" 20 miles. But anywhere else seems like im getting scalped just trying to help the environment a bit. I love the plug in feature but you guys with real ev whats your experience with these public ev chargers? Because so far in my few weeks of ownership it has cost me 3-4x more to charge up than if I just fill up (gas)and drive. Which was not at all the outcome I expected... yes some are noob mistakes i get it but even the fees per kwh seem really high. To charge the tiny battery in the i8. Cheapest public charger yet was still $3.28. Almost the cost of a gallon of gas that gets me 40 miles... yet only get the 20ish EV miles with the i8. Public charging for a non tesla (j1772) just seems crazy expensive.
 
I use the PlugShare app to scope out chargers before I use them. People post about sneaky fees. I also try to target only chargers still listed as free, because if you don’t hand over a credit card, they can’t charge you at all.
 
I don't think most folks driving a PHEV are using a public charger unless it's free to charge. I know I don't!

Frankly, unless you are a retired, work from home, drive less than the 20 mile range or get an HOV sticker, you bought the wrong car.
 
Why i bought the i8...
1.) Its a real sports car after the tune 175mph+ with ease.
2.) Compared to my other sports cars 11 gallons of gas gets me more that 300 miles easily. Compared to barely 150-200 in my other cars.
3.) Plug in!!! most my shopping, errands, trips are less than 20 mile trips. Plus everybody bragging that ev is so much cheaper than gas.
4.) Everywhere I go it starts conversations.

What i was surprised by was the actual cost of ev charging. Its way way more expensive to charge up an ev than its gas equivalent(public charger compated to gas stations). Im also noting the Kw used is quite a bit higher than the overall capacity of the battery. I thought that ev charging would have focused on efficiency. I see 8+kwh used when I charge up at a public charger. I tested this on 6 different public chargers. The battery capacity is a tiny 7.1kwh. So I see this as quite wasteful needing it seems like 15-20% more than the actual battery capacity. All the articles I have read claiming the high efficiency of ev and the low cost of electricity and charging an ev. They never mention this downside. Ive read more articles recently looked at other forums. But i never see this issue being talked about or mentioned. So here are my conclusions
1.) Limited ev range really brings out the downsides of the current ev infrastructure.
2.) Zero regulation on ev charging (gas stations are highly regulated) making anything other than home or complimentary(true free ev charging) cost prohibitive even wasteful.
3.) In my experience a true ev in the current atmosphere and infrastructure is NOT viable for me as a main vehicle. 8k miles on my i8 in first month of ownership.
4.)Im curious if anybody would even dare to own an ev if all they had was on street parking and no home charge ability. Because nobody on my brothers street has a garage or even a driveway. All houses only get on street parking.
 
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