ChargePoint Offering Free Cards to Volt Drivers

[ChargePoint]

ChargePoint is excited to offer Volt drivers a free ChargePoint Card! Your free card will allow you to easily access the world's largest network of public charging stations.

You can use ChargePoint Network to search for public charging stations, find unoccupied stations, check station pricing, and make station reservations. You can even monitor your car as it charges, get alerts when it's fully charged, and track your energy usage across each station.

To get your free card, sign up here: http://chargepoint.net/volt/.

Then check out how it all works here: http://chargepoint.net/how-sign-up.php.

Happy driving!

-Elizabeth, ChargePoint Team

[Mars_Volta]

Right after I paid 7 dollars for mine! Shucks.

[drbruns]

Thanks for the free card. However, you need to be aware and understand that 350green is running a bunch of your chargers and as of June 1, they are charging $2 per hour with a 1 hour minimum. Most Volt owners on this forum will not be using these stations at this price per hour. The free card you are offering here will be of no use at these stations.

I know this is not specifically your problem, but 350green is doing a huge disservice to the EV community with their pricing policy.

[wishman]

Thanks! Good to have one handy in case a free charger pops up.

[firebirdbandit]

The card makes ChargePoint charging stations very easy to use. However for pay chargers, You have to be careful about ending your session (you can do it with smartphone app., I'm not sure what you do if you don't have a smartphone) when your car is fully charged so you don't keep getting charged when the car is still plugged in. This makes it hard to use ChargePoint charging stations at night specifically for Volt owners who only need 4 hours of charge.

Todd from ChargePoint is helping me work out an issue I had the first time I used a pay charger. I think I understand it all now but its not as easy as it should be.

[awm]

I use public charging stations when I really need to recharge the battery as long as they are free or priced at or around an equivalent cost if I had to travel on gas. Anything above an equivalent gas cost does not make sense financially. Yes, charging is greener than filling up with gas but the price has to be reasonably competitive. Unfortunately, as long as charge station owners are not allowed to charge by power delivered and instead must charge by hours/minutes, the Volt's charging capacity of 3.3 kWh on Level 2 makes it completely unattractive compared to the Leaf, Focus, etc.

[AZ-Volt]

Need more in Phoenix AZ. You have 2 locations. Bink has close to 300. Just saying...

[John_Hatchett]

This is the card you need to be able to get free charging at my local Whole Foods grocery stores. Not sure if all the Whole Foods locations use the same network though.

[bonaire]

If the card is now free - could it be there is a move to make more of the stations for-fee?

[John_Hatchett]

If the card is now free - could it be there is a move to make more of the stations for-fee?

I'm guessing this is a market share play. If ChargePoint can brag that 99% of EV owners have a chargepoint card then they can get more business from citys, national grocery chains, shopping malls, theater chains, etc ... to install stations

If they get enough market share they might even be able to roll out a "validation" program to nearby merchants. i.e. "CVS will validate (comp) your charging session with any purchase".