Public charging for noobs

G

Green thumb

New Member
Has anyone had experience in using a level 2 public charger? I was curious about this so i went to a public charger to take a look and it seems you need a membership app or scan something in order to access. It also charges $.69 kwh which seems pretty high. I dont know what it was but it wasnt evgo.
 
Public charging varies greatly. Some public charging is free, some have reasonable fees, and some are in the range of what you said. Some charge by time instead of electricity usage. It would be crazy to pay 69 cents per kwh as that is much more expensive than gasoline.

Once public charging gets faster, I'm hoping that they can become like gas stations and charge a reasonable fee and make money so that they are available in many places.
 
ChargePoint are usually free or billed by time
Blink are usually billed by kWh

Based on my experience in WA , most public chargers are quite expensive, more expensive than local PSE utility rate.

Some paid public parking offer free charge. Some government places has free parking and charging, always full.

Exception are those employer supported ones, but you need to work there. Technically not public at all.
 
Install ChargePoint app on your phone, then search for ChargePoint public chargers. In my area, the rate is about $0.15/kWh, or about $2.25 for a full charge on the Clarity PHEV. EVgo network charges much higher rate in our area as well.


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Is the Honda Link app's Charge Station page accurate and complete listing many or most of the public chargers?

Interestingly, the Honda dealer that I bought my clarity from doesn't have a level 2 charger. [emoji3525] ... not that I would ever go there to charge it.
 
Randy Stegbauer said:
Is the Honda Link app's Charge Station page accurate and complete listing many or most of the public chargers?

Interestingly, the Honda dealer that I bought my clarity from doesn't have a level 2 charger. [emoji3525] ... not that I would ever go there to charge it.
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I’ve found the HL map to be sorely lacking and my ChargePoint map is biased toward ChargePoint stations (duh) and lacking also.
The best app that shows the most stations and places with just receptacles for the supplied Level 1 charger is by far and away PlugShare. It’s the only app I use to search for stations and then if I can’t find a freebie I use ChargePoint, but only as a last resort since theirs are expensive in my neck of the woods.
 
0.69 sounds like highway robbery. I’ve occasionally paid 0.3/kWh which is bad enough. We have a few free ones too. I’ve only used ChargePoint - you do need the app and login but is pretty easy to use.
 
Randy Stegbauer said:
Interestingly, the Honda dealer that I bought my clarity from doesn't have a level 2 charger.
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I have yet to see a Honda dealer with a charger. Obviously Honda corporate isn't making it a priority for their dealers. Almost all Nissan dealers have them, as a comparison.
 
weave said:
I have yet to see a Honda dealer with a charger. Obviously Honda corporate isn't making it a priority for their dealers. Almost all Nissan dealers have them, as a comparison.
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My experience as well. In fact when I took delivery of mine, it was a dealership that sold both Nissan and Honda. Had to walk over to the Nissan dealer to get it where it was charging on their level 2 charger.
 
The lowest MPG I have seen is 42MPG. Working off a gas price of $3.50 a gallon that would mean that if the EV charging costs more than .25 kWh then it is cheaper to run off the gas engine. SIDE NOTE: That said; my daughter, who is an Environmental Science student in college, wants to run in EV mode at almost any cost up here in the Pacific Northwest. She does admit she to running on gas is OK in the areas that get they power from coal stations. We can open a 100 threads going down this rabbit hole. The thing that really hurts is that she is a vegetarian and I was raised on a cattle ranch, how is this possible?
 
Wow too many choices and its making my head spin. Would rather gas it and charge at home until these ev stations become more user friendly. I prefer teslas way of offering free supercharging for the life of the car (this is probably not available anymore). Not sure how much model 3 owners have to pay kwh. at superchargers. We bought our model x in march and it came with lifetime free charging. I guess thats the least they can do for a $125k car.
 
I'd for sure skip a $0.69/hr charge. That's highway robbery. Only BEVs would be that desperate. When one considers the commercial rates for electricity, anything over $0.35/hr is sketchy. I will occasionally charge at a 49¢/hr charger on campus - but it's mostly about the parking space. The charge spots are close to the entrance/exit - which matters.
 
Green thumb said:
Wow too many choices and its making my head spin. Would rather gas it and charge at home until these ev stations become more user friendly. I prefer teslas way of offering free supercharging for the life of the car (this is probably not available anymore). Not sure how much model 3 owners have to pay kwh. at superchargers. We bought our model x in march and it came with lifetime free charging. I guess thats the least they can do for a $125k car.
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Hmm, I think you just prepaid for the charging to Tesla :).

BTW, how is the line in the Tesla charging stations now that Model 3 is being semi-mass produced. Really curious.
 
bfd said:
I'd for sure skip a $0.69/hr charge. That's highway robbery. Only BEVs would be that desperate. When one considers the commercial rates for electricity, anything over $0.35/hr is sketchy. I will occasionally charge at a 49¢/hr charger on campus - but it's mostly about the parking space. The charge spots are close to the entrance/exit - which matters.
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Note that there’s a big difference between $0.69/hr and $0.69/kWh. If the charger is 30amp or more and the rate is $0.69/hr, then that’s actually a good deal. Since it takes under 2.5 hours for a full charge, you’re paying only $1.40-$1.50 for 47miles range. That’s a steal. However, if you are paying $0.69/kWh, then you’ll be paying about $10 for a full charge. I would definitely stay away from that charger.


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lanb said:
Hmm, I think you just prepaid for the charging to Tesla :).

BTW, how is the line in the Tesla charging stations now that Model 3 is being semi-mass produced. Really curious.
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Definitely notice more teslas charging especially on weekends. A lot of model 3s around. Not sure what the rates are for these owners because they only get 400 kwh/year free.
 
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