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Problem with high price public charging

12K views 31 replies 21 participants last post by  pjwood 
#1 ·
As Volt owners, we pretty much agree we will not pay $1/hour for level 2 charging. Maybe level 2 owners or service providers (ChargePoint) don’t understand why.

The Volt will get 35-40 miles per gallon in charge sustaining mode.
For 1 gallon of gas, priced at $3.65, the Volt can travel 40 highway miles; roughly 9 cents a mile on gas.

On a full charge the Volt will travel approximately 37 highway miles.
With level 2 charging at $1.00 / hour, $4.00 will fill up a Volts empty battery.
At this price it comes to roughly 10.8 cents a mile.

For a Volt owner it only makes sense to pay $1/hour to charge if the price of gas was a lot over $4.35 / gallon.
Because it only takes 5 minutes to get 9 gallons of gas for roughly 360 miles as opposed to four hours for 40 miles.

IMO, high public charging rates stem in part from the yearly fee companies like ChargePoint are charging Level 2 charging station owners. I have been told, ChargePoint charges a yearly fee of $230 for services like account maintenance, credit card processing, and internet map functions. That’s roughly $19 a month to recover via charging customers not to mention the $7,000 for the Level 2 charger itself or the addition cost for electrical installation work. For business owners that can deduct those upfront costs as capital improvements and hope to increase store traffic of affluent plug-in owners it might make sense. For industrial parking lots of businesses installing level 2 charging stations for employees it’s a waste of money. There is zero chance of profit with middle men like ChargePoint hitting owners with $230 a year service fee. That’s why current owners are charging $2 per hour. I don’t know what kind of costs ChargePoint has to deal with, but if they can’t lower their service fee to $120 a year, I predict we’ll see a lot of public ChargePoint chargers going private due to owners not willing to pay the yearly service fee.
 
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#2 ·
I'll pay $1 an hour for L2 charging, at least for opportunity charges while I'm out-n-about. I think that's a fair price for the convenience and I don't mind the owner trying to recoup at least some of the installation and fee costs.

I wouldn't pay that much on a daily basis, and I wouldn't pay $2 per hour in any circumstance.
 
#13 ·
I'll pay $1 an hour for L2 charging, at least for opportunity charges while I'm out-n-about. I think that's a fair price for the convenience and I don't mind the owner trying to recoup at least some of the installation and fee costs.
I'm happy to pay for the convenience of charging, WHILE I'M GETTING A CHARGE. Simple paying for time connected is a rip-off. I've found that I need to be very careful in charging when I'm on the road.

Volt 63
 
#3 · (Edited)
Like most corporations, Chargepoint (and others) are there to eventually turn a profit (sooner rather than later). And with a slower-adoption to EVs than they would have expected 2 years ago - I suspect they are sweating it a little now especially with the Volt being the big-seller in terms of EVs and not Leafs. Two years ago, I think they were thinking Leaf would outsell Volt because "everyone will want to be green and drive an EV without the need for gasoline but *with* the need for public charging infrastructure."

I think Volt owners will "Volt" (Vote) by not using Chargepoint (or other) chargers if they are $1.00 or higher especially if they are 1-hour minimum. 120V charging at work is just fine for a full Volt battery and that is a great shared responsibility between business and employees - a low cost way to allow for lower gasoline use. Buying a little gas (opportunity-charge equivallent) doesn't equate to sending money to OPEC. Seriously, this has gotten a little out of hand. If you drop from 4-gallons a day for commuting to 1-gallon - you are going to throw the balance of oil production closer to home. Do it on a mass scale and no OPEC oil is needed as all oil is then source from US, Canada, Mexico and other more local environments.

If prices were equal and there isn't a "rounding-up" of public charging to be "to the nearest hour, 1-hour minimum" then I'd consider using them for topping off the battery. There is very very few charging opportunities like this in my area of SE PA, northern Delaware, So NJ.
 
#4 ·
As Volt owners, we pretty much agree we will not pay $1/hour for level 2 charging.
I'm not sure this is a universal belief. You agree that you will not pay $1/hour for L2 charging, but I'd rather pay $1/hour for electricity than use gasoline at essentially the same price.

For 1 gallon of gas, priced at $3.65, the Volt can travel 40 highway miles; roughly 9 cents a mile on gas.

On a full charge the Volt will travel approximately 37 highway miles.
With level 2 charging at $1.00 / hour, $4.00 will fill up a Volts empty battery.
At this price it comes to roughly 10.8 cents a mile.
So what you're saying is that you'd rather send $0.90 to OPEC than $1.00 to an American company? I wouldn't. That was my basic reason for getting a Volt - avoid sending money to OPEC. On those rare occasions that I want to top off my battery, I don't mind spending an extra 1.8¢ if that keeps 9¢ from going to people trying to kill us. That doesn't mean that I'd rather pay for electricity than go to a free station, rather it is only to say that when I have an option on how to spend my money, I'd rather do it as above.
 
#10 ·
So what you're saying is that you'd rather send $0.90 to OPEC than $1.00 to an American company? I wouldn't. That was my basic reason for getting a Volt - avoid sending money to OPEC. On those rare occasions that I want to top off my battery, I don't mind spending an extra 1.8¢ if that keeps 9¢ from going to people trying to kill us. That doesn't mean that I'd rather pay for electricity than go to a free station, rather it is only to say that when I have an option on how to spend my money, I'd rather do it as above.
I agree completely.

$1.00/hour charging is break-even economically and win-win in the War on Terror.
 
#5 · (Edited)
I with you. I won't pay $1 an hour to charge either. I think right now, the best thing we can do is work on our employers to install cheap means of charging, so that we can preserve the fuel cost savings associated with buying an electric car.

But let's face it. The charging infrastructure is really expensive. They will eventually have to cost recover it somehow, but I'm not sure how long it will take them to figure out it likely won't work trying to recover it entirely from the users, not at this early stage. I consider charging infrastructure part of the public good, like the bus service, that should be spread across the entire user base.

^ It actually ends up being much higher than $1 an hour. Most of these stations do NOT charge partial hours. If you use it for 1 hour and 10 minutes, you will often get charged for 2 hours. I suspect the effective rate will be something closer to $6 a gallon gas, which I am NOT willing to pay under any circumstances with a Volt.
 
#7 ·
Variable is a good idea. Probably won't fly in a corporate board room as opportunity costs are always considered.

Here's a pretty good article from today regarding Ford's up-coming plugins:
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/fords-myford-mobile-app-batteries-130000359.html

Come to think about it. There are 150,000 or more Gasoline stations in the USA. To make a charging infrastructure where cars can plug in and charge a good number of hours, you need about 250,000 to 1 million individual "stations" due to charging time. I guess that would include home-charging of the EV owner and perhaps pair that with an at-work charging station. For every EV owner, you basically need at least 2 to 2.5 charging stations to make them really work. For a Volt owner, you really really only need one - the home with a bunch of other options for opportunity charging and making the most of the Volt purchase.
 
#8 ·
In June, one of the Chargepoint stations next to Walgreens that I occasionally used went from free to $2/hour. Way too expensive I thought. I would pay $1/hour to be off gas, but double that was almost outrageous. I drove home using .1 gallons of gas instead.
 
#9 ·
I've been working with local officials to get the charging rate correct when they start charging. The stations were installed with grant money, so they dont need to recoup equipment cost. Right now we are thinking 40 cents an hour, which will cover the electricity and a small administrative fee.
 
#11 ·
If the charger was conveniently located and easy to use I'd pay $1/hour IF I needed the charge to avoid using the engine. The problem is that 90% of the time I don't need a charge. In these cases my home rate of $.13/kWh -- at most -- is going to be a lot cheaper. The point is that the big competition for public chargers isn't gas it's home charging. With all the great special rates available for home charging those running public chargers have very stiff competition.

If you need a charge that's another story, but with so few EVs on the road it's going to be quite a trick to find locations with a larger number of EVs which need to charge.
 
#12 ·
Just as long as we don't start to believe that every gallon of gasoline we buy is being pumped and delivered by terrorists. But it is a bit of fear mongering to believe that terrorism will stop when we import zero barrels from OPEC. It will slow down somewhat when we bring home our troops and let those countries figure out what to do on their own. I'm one who believes they really don't want us there in "their" land. (I still think the American Indians are a little upset for our ancestors coming to live in "their" land as well).

Capitalism (ie. big oil) and the defense department doesn't want terrorism to decline - it cuts into their budgets. I truly believe that we are driven to hate by people who then profit from that hate.
 
#14 ·
"bonaire
Just as long as we don't start to believe that every gallon of gasoline we buy is being pumped and delivered by terrorists."

Seems like an odd statement...


Anyway, 1$ an hour seems okay... as long as you can specify up front how many hours you want the charger to charge. Like pre-paying the terriorists to pump your gas
 
#15 ·
$2/hr turns me "off" ... $1/hr I'll do only in an "emergency" (which the Volt doesn't have, only BEVs have that "issue"). $0.50/hr turns me "on" and I'll pay it. If the charger in the Volt would deliver double (6.6kW) to the battery (like the FFE) I would "double up" on those costs just mentioned (i.e. I would pay $1/hr more often).
 
#23 ·
Weak reply...


1$ is my limit.. I'd do it if it came with the perks of premium parking.... The one place that has a charging station here has it shut down at the moment because of some permit issues.. I am willing to pay 2$ just to try it out the first time...

The 1$ for the 1st hr +50c each addtional hour sounds like win-win..
 
#18 · (Edited)
My questionable comment above is for anyone who thinks that if they buy a gallon at the pump, we are sending $4.00 to countries that hate us. Canada - they tolerate us :) Mexico, they love us enough to have 10% off the population living here.

If the cost of public charging matches the cost of buying gas - I'm buying gas instead of going through the hassles involved in for-profit public charging (rounding up to nearest hour, finding stations somewhere near where I am going rather than just parking in the destination's parking lot). If everyone drove a Volt and charged at home, we would cut deeply into our imported oil basis. Didn't someone come up with "if 1 million Volts were on the road - we wouldn't need to import any OPEC oil"? We'd still import the additional 3 million bbls a day (I think it's more than that), though, from Canada, Mexico and other places. It's a big problem to solve.

Topical: http://www.npr.org/2012/04/11/150444802/where-does-america-get-oil-you-may-be-surprised
 
#21 ·
Everything is relative, as Einstein said. Just be glad you are not paying European gas prices...

The 40mpg is about 17km/L, with 1.80 Euro per liter(=6.48/gallon!), that is 0.11 cent/km (=0.176 cent/mile) . I can drive 60km (or more) on a 3.5 hour charge, at Euro 3.5. that is less than 0.058 cent/km (=0.09c/mile). So I do not mind paying 1 Euro/hour for 240V/16A charge.

When charging at home, it will be cheaper, about 0.22cent/kwh, with 12kwh needed for a full charge (=2.64 euro) it will be 0.044 cents/km (0.07c/mile).

With the euro being at 1.22 Dollar at the moment this would be $0.215/mile for gas and $0.11c/mile for the $1/hour charge.

In short I love my volt, and do not mind for paying 1 Euro/hour at a public charge staying as we currently do over here.
 
#27 ·
At this point it's all academic to me. I live in the L.A. area. I've been driving my Volt for almost 1 1/2 years and I have never even SEEN a viable operating public charging station.

And I have no interest in dealing with all of the ancillary issues we have discussed here over the months and years. For example, ICE cars parked at the charging station, what happens if my car finishes charging, I'm not there, and somebody else wants to use the station?, do BEVs have priority, the charging station screws up the electronics in my car, yada, yada , yada. Not ready for prime time IMHO.

That said, when and if it ever happens, $1/hr is about it for me.
 
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#29 ·
Two 1960's slogans:
"War is good business - invest your son"
"Suppose they gave a war and nobody came"


I beg to differ. The decades after WW1, WW2, even the Cold War, were periods of great economic expansion. Wartime production is wasted production.

The Cold War ended peacefully when the Soviets ran out of resources to fight the West and suppress their own people. The War on Terror can end the same way if we take away the billions of dollars used to brainwash other people's children into sociopaths and arm them as killers.

If the EV is not an effective weapon of peace, why are major governments investing beyond all economic and political logic to break our addiction to oil?
 
#32 ·
My feelings toward limited government are mixed, but when it comes to consuming cheaper US electricity vs. increasingly expensive gas, policy finds a good place IMO. Another would be in sponsoring infrastructure, as grant money has already done. Electricity delivery is heavily regulated, relative to gas. Recovering close to what it costs is precisely why some of us pay 3 cents, while others pay 20, to their public utilities. The "what the market will bear" model would kill EV's because, as we are seeing, attempts at cost recovery, the station/hardware, which come too quickly, simply drive off the slow growing EV population. No more stations get built, non garage owning EV propects never pull the trigger, etc.

These kinds of changes will continue to take policy involvement to succeed.
 
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