ChargePoint Offering Free Cards to Volt Drivers

[ITestStuff]

I think some kind of subscription fee would be best. Something like $20 to $50 per year for unlimited charging at their charging stations. That would enable them to make a profit and let those of us who make heavy use of charging have an affordable plan.

Change "year" to "month", lose the $20 option and you're probably a lot closer to what the charging companies have in mind.

But SHHHHH! Let's not propose new fee-based models. Let's push businesses to use these as a competitive advantage to let you charge for free while you shop.

[RScott]

Most of the expense of these charging networks is on the "fixed" side of the ledger, the incremental kwh are typically in the $0.02 range so ...

While gas is a commodity and price fluctuations are primarily due to taxes prices. If it is $3.79 retail in California, and Texas gas stations charge $.37, California entrepreneurs (arbitrageurs, more precisely) will zip over to Texas, buy gas at $.37/gallon, sell it in California for $3.79/gallon, and become rich overnight. Except supply/demand prevents that, so the prices would go up in Texas and down in California, until the prices were even.

Electricity doesn't work that way, since you can't just load a truck with electricity and move it across the country. So, as I have already told you, electric prices vary tremendously across the country.

You pay $.02, we pay $.12, 5+ times what you pay.

So your idea of subscriptions might work very well in Texas, but not in many other parts of the country.

If you want to keep up this discussion, let's start a thread dedicated to it, so as not to disturb other threads.

[dtaubert]

Got my ChargePoint card in the mail a few days ago. About to register it. Thanks for the heads up!

[Can't wait!]

Originally Posted by Rampage_Rick
How did you apply? The form doesn't include provinces.

I just picked a random State.. however, in the "City" field.. I typed: City, Province, Country, and Postal Code..

Just got mine.. !

[montgom626]

Electricity doesn't work that way, since you can't just load a truck with electricity and move it across the country.

Hmm, not so sure. Electricity is a commodity, bought and sold and shipped everywhere. Trading is done minute by minute.

[RScott]

Hmm, not so sure. Electricity is a commodity, bought and sold and shipped everywhere. Trading is done minute by minute.

I could be wrong, but I thought the whole buying-and-selling thing was a regional thing (e.g. a solar farm hooks up to the local utility), and that it just wasn't cost effective to move energy across the country.

If it is a commodity, why does electricity cost $.05/kWh in some parts of the country and $.20/kWh in others?

[Red Volt]

The electricity for the Chargepoint units is supplied by the building owner from my understanding (and it is that way for the free DOE grant ones that people are using). The Kwh cost is whatever rate system the owner is on. It's usually in the $0.09 to $0.12 range here in the Tampa Area. The building owner sets the price I understand, and Chargepoint has fees they charge as well I believe to manage it. The Publix Greenwise in Tampa has a free unit that has no card system or anything, you just plug in. I like that for shopping. Now to get more places to do that.

[sarahjs]

Glad I found this and just signed up for my free card. However, I'm still a little confused on why you need a card to access free stations. Does Chargepoint really have any free stations? I found 2 different Chargepoint locations tonight that show up as free on the map, but I couldn't access them since I didn't have a pass card or a credit card with the tap thing on it. The only public charger I've used so far is a free one at the airport that didn't require a card or anything.

[Treq]

Can someone give me a valid reason for these cards? Why can't the chargepoint stations just take a credit card like any gas station?

[RScott]

I buy electricity from a wind farm in west Texas and I pay a transport charge to have it delivered. I can buy from any electricity producer connected inside ERCOT (mainly Texas). My former employer buys electricity from a landfill and has it transported over the grid to their campus. It really is a commodity.

The way it works here, if you buy from wind farms, they connect directly to the grid, and you connect directly to the grid, and you pay them a fee based on how many kWh you use. If they sell 100,000kWh to customers, and generate 100,000kWh, the electric company has to generate 100,000 less kWh than it otherwise would. But the electrons generated by the wind farm most likely end up with local customers.

So in reality, you are paying to have a wind farm generate electricity offsetting your usage, not paying for the actual electrons that the wind farm generates.

Now for the amount of electricity your employer buys, if the landfill is close, it's possible they have a direct connection, and those actual electrons are transported (although I doubt that). But if the landfill is in Massachusetts and the business in Texas, there is no way it is going to happen.

In most cases, it is really a philosophical discussion (e.g. is it OK for you to pay for wind energy that actually goes to someone else, if it offsets your usage?). But from a commodity standpoint, that doesn't count. If I made a magic electricity generator that could generate electricity for free, the infrastructure couldn't get that to everyone in the U.S. Billions of dollars would have to be spent to get it everywhere needed.

If you really can simply connect as needed to get electricity (like telephones), why can I not buy electricity for $.05/kWh here? It's because of the huge costs to transport the electricity (if it is even possible to do so).