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Coin operated public charging station market?

5K views 10 replies 11 participants last post by  Danwells 
#1 ·
Will we ever see coin operated public charging stations? :confused:
The current business model used by companies like Chargepoint is not beneficial to their customers. You get a company like Chargepoint to install a charging station and you pay a one-time installation cost between $5,000 and $10,000. Then they charge you a $20 monthly network fee whether your charger gets used or not. Unless they change their monthly network fee to a “USE” based model, I see an opportunity for a company like GE to start selling coin operated public charging stations to towns and businesses.
 
#3 ·
Smartphone app.

I have one for this, called Mobile Now.

Ironically, its method of activation is primitive compared to Chargepoint. It makes you enter the station code, wait a minute for a activation code, which you then have to manually punch in a keypad on the station; then it's just a timer that expires.

The Chargepoint card and app system is light years ahead; someone just needs to create more compatible products, such as the Chargepoint-enabled L1 recepticle! :
 
#5 ·
No. Much better to have a pre-pay card-based system. Coins involve more overhead since it has to be emptied. Also makes the charger more of a target for theft and vandalism.

(Unfortunately credit card companies successfully lobbied in CA to get a rule that pay-per-use chargers have to accept credit cards as well.)
 
#6 ·
Will we ever see coin operated public charging stations? ...
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I doubt it. the cost of putting in a charging station is an order of magnitude higher than that of putting in a parking meter because it is an outdoor, all weather, 6 KW installation with an easy to cut off and easy to sell for scrap aluminun or copper electrical cord attached and associated maintenance costs. Even the plug needs to be replaced regularly since it is designed for 10,000 plug/unplug cycles. It would take a lot of coins to generate a business model or even a municipal tax supported model for that sort of business. Ask yourself the question another way. If I had $10,000 to invest, would I be willing to start a company whose entire business was the operation of a 2 plug charging station that EV owners could use, either with coins or a credit card? If a local bank lent you half of this cost at 5% interest would you be willing to invest the other $5k yourself? The answer is no different for a town or EV fueling business than it is for you. The companies who have been kind enough to us to make this investment are largely either 1- doing this as a marketing costs decision- (that is a trade off comparison with mailing out coupons or similar radio advertising cost) or 2- getting sufficient other external benefit to make it worth trying.
 
#7 ·
Also keep in mind that since the USA no longer wants to use any coins larger than a quarter, and being most charging stations charge at least a dollar per hour. Think about the number of quarters you'd need to carry around. If the Dollar coins were to ever gain popularity, I could come closer to thinking that might work. Then you'd only need 1 coin per hour.

The great thing about coins, though.. Would be that if you paid for 1 hour of charge, 1 hour is all you will get. I can't tell you how many times I've walked up to my car on a Blink station to unplug the car and the timer is setting on 1:01 and so I get charged for 2 hours.
 
#8 ·
I've parked at such a parking spot. Kind of. At BGSU, there is a parking lot with a charging station and a meter. Well, the whole visitor section is meter, so you pay for parking, but charging is free.

When I moved to a municipal lot, same setup, but they were offering free parking that weekend!
 
#9 · (Edited)
I think it is a cool idea for small businesses who want to put in a low cost charging station and not have it abused by the people who leave their car there for hours to charge up for free. You could put a simple quarter mechanical timer mechanism on a charging station that gives someone an hour at a time. It would not be a money maker, but it would prevent abuse. You drop a quarter into the slot, turn the handle and the timer turns it off after an hour.

This is a good option for small businesses and avoid joining a costly network. The problem with credit cards is the merchants gets charged a .30-.50 transaction charge, plus a percentage. This is not a good deal if you are only charging a couple of bucks to plug in.
 
#11 ·
The downtown public charging station in Burlington, VT has an approach to this. It is a free Chargepoint station attached to a fast-running parking meter. The meter is one of the most expensive in town ($1 per hour, which will seem comically cheap to folks in larger cities), although it is also a very desirable parking space and I haven't checked to see if the meters next to it are equally expensive (Burlington has the bad habit of putting meters of wildly different prices right next to one another).
The meter is off at night and on Sundays, and the charging space is extremely convenient then - it is often seemingly the only non-handicapped space free in all of Burlington. Interestingly, it has an odd way of getting ICEd. In addition to the usual random vehicles (everything else is taken) and large trucks with right-wing stickers (political statement), it also gets ICEd by motorcycles with surprising frequency! It's right next to a motorcycle space that fits about three bikes, and motorcycles tend to travel in packs. If six motorcyclists show up together, they take their space, but the additional bikes often wind up in the EV space rather than looking around for another space.
 
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