Electric vehicle charger

[John120/240]

At Walgreens Drug store there is an EV charging station. I checked it out because I was curious. I could not find any spot to insert quarters or a charge card. So who is paying for the juice, the store or EV owner ?
Is it practical at a drug store because the duration of your visit is what 15 or 20 minutes on average ? For an employee it would make more sense. I will inquire with the manager on my next visit.

 

[GoldDigger]

It is free (paid by the store) as a promotional item.
If you have a plug-in EV you might want to go to that store from work even for a 15 minute charge.
In some states and cities there are also incentives to provide these services.

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[Rampage_Rick]

There have been a few examples where an employee was given permission to plug in their EV at work, and another employee got jealous and asked for free gas too. If only they realized how little gas they'd receive, considering that the cost to recharge a Volt from empty is about a dollar. Two dollars for a Leaf.

In any case, the cost to install a charging station is much more than the cost of the electricity it dispenses. If a business is willing to spend $2000-5000 putting one in, I doubt they'll balk at the two dollars of electricity per day (assuming a busy station) In most cases it's more cost effective to give it away for free, as the cost of a "dumb" station like a Clipper Creek unit is much less than the cost of a system that can provide billing like a ChargePoint.

Clipper Creek CS-40: $2450
ChargePoint CT2000: $5045 (plus a monthly network fee)

$2595 is a lot of electricity you can afford to give away for free. Assuming 10 cents/kWh that's 1300 fillups from empty on a Nissan Leaf. (65 days of continuous charging at 6.6kW)

 

[ActionDave]

At Walgreens Drug store there is an EV charging station. I checked it out because I was curious. I could not find any spot to insert quarters or a charge card. So who is paying for the juice, the store or EV owner ?
Is it practical at a drug store because the duration of your visit is what 15 or 20 minutes on average ? For an employee it would make more sense. I will inquire with the manager on my next visit.

I set up a couple. They are networked with some nationwide company. You set up an account and get a fob that you wave in front of the charger. Everything is handled by the big brain in the sky. Don't worry about the NSA, they don't consider EV drivers a threat.

 

[augie47]

In a bit of irony, about a year ago I inspected a large EV charging station installed at the local Cracker Barrel. The same week they were having a meeting to discuss how to get the customers in and out of the restaurant quicker. Seems if you were charging your vehicle you would tend to stay longer.
On a side, I have yet to see the 1st vehicle charging there. I'm sure it happens but I have not seen it. During peak hours there are often non-electric vehicles parked at the EV spots.