Vehicle Charging Stations " FREE " ?

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donaldelectrician

Senior Member
I was shopping at a Whole Foods Store and they were installing (8) Vehicle Charging Stations .

There was no provision to PAY ... NO CASH ... A FREEBEE .

Is that the wave of the future ? If you buy an electric car , they will have Free Charging Stations all around .

Anyone else have the word on this ?





Don
 
D

donaldelectrician

Senior Member
ActionDave said:
The ones I put in you set up an account and are given a card that you swipe to start the charging.
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That makes sense ... I will check these out further ... but it is a shopping market , no other stores , just Whole Foods ... Maybe it is a perk to shop there ? Probably timed .





Don
 
Dennis Alwon

Dennis Alwon

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Location
Chapel Hill, NC
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Retired Electrical Contractor
There are places in town here that have free charging. I doubt that will be the wave of the future. Remember it takes quite awhile to charge a vehicle unless they have very large units
 
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John120/240

Senior Member
Location
Olathe, Kansas
donaldelectrician said:
I was shopping at a Whole Foods Store and they were installing (8) Vehicle Charging Stations .

There was no provision to PAY ... NO CASH ... A FREEBEE .

Is that the wave of the future ? If you buy an electric car , they will have Free Charging Stations all around .

Anyone else have the word on this ?





Don
Click to expand...
It's not free.

The cost to install & operate these car chargers is just added to your gallon of milk or loaf of bread. Think of it more as an incentive to get you to shop there.
 
Smart $

Smart $

Esteemed Member
Location
Ohio
John120/240 said:
It's not free.

The cost to install & operate these car chargers is just added to your gallon of milk or loaf of bread. Think of it more as an incentive to get you to shop there.
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The plus side of that, at least for EV owners, is that all shoppers share the burden of charging your vehicle. :angel:
 
Rampage_Rick

Rampage_Rick

Senior Member
Location
British Columbia, Canada
John120/240 said:
It's not free.

The cost to install & operate these car chargers is just added to your gallon of milk or loaf of bread. Think of it more as an incentive to get you to shop there.
Click to expand...
The cost of charging an electric car is probably insignificant in comparison to the cost to light the store and operate all the refrigeration.

Excluding Tesla, most EVs charge at 3300 or 6600 watts. Assuming 12 cents per kWh, that's only 39-79 cents per hour of charging.

It's often the case where it's not cost effective to add the hardware to allow for session-based billing. "Dumb" stations can be had for $500-1000 whereas units capable of billing for energy are more in the $2500-8000 range. A price difference of $2000 could equate to 4 hours of free charging per day for 3 years for a single station.
 
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donaldelectrician

Senior Member
John120/240 said:
It's not free.

The cost to install & operate these car chargers is just added to your gallon of milk or loaf of bread. Think of it more as an incentive to get you to shop there.
Click to expand...



That is what I think is going on ... I am paying for there charge . These are really impressive units , about 6' tall , with 2 chargers per unit .





Don
 
augie47

augie47

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Tennessee
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State Electrical Inspector (Retired)
Our local Cracker Barrel installed a EV charging station, one fast charge and two slow charges.
I've been watching it for about 6 months now as I drive by and have not seen a car charging yet... don't doubt it happens, I've just not seen it. In real busy times the spaces are often taken up by non EVs
 
steve66

steve66

Senior Member
Location
Illinois
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Engineer
K8MHZ said:
What's the difference between 50 cents worth of electricity and a 50 cent coupon for goods at the store?

When people use coupons and you don't, are you paying for their purchases?
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I was thinking the same thing about the gas discounts. That's becoming more popular around here, and it seems like you can't have a grocery store unless it has a gas station also.
 
B

bphgravity

Senior Member
Location
Florida
The #1 reported complaint from EV owners is range anxiety. Range anxiety also happens to be the #1 reason individuals, when asked, won't buy an EV.

So, the only way EV will ever be as successful and popular as gasoline vehicles, is to make charging those vehicles as easy and convenient as fueling gasoline vehicles. This means EV charging stations will need to be on every street corner in town, at every interstate exit, at shopping centers, and anywhere else cars are parked for a period of time (airports, hotels, convention centers, etc.)

More importantly, the cost to charge a vehicle will have to be significantly less or totally free in order to compete with gas prices.
 
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GoldDigger

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Placerville, CA, USA
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Retired PV System Designer
mgookin said:
Why don't electric cars have solar panels on the roof?
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Because they would produce a negligible amount of power compared to what the car uses.
Toyota offers a solar roof option at considerable cost, but all it does is run a ventilating fan when the car is parked in full sun.

The electric vehicles (I won't even call most of them cars) that you see in competitions with solar panels all over the body are also the designs that would get 1200MPG if you used a gas engine. In those cases the cost of the panels does not matter and the power they generate is significant.
 
steve66

steve66

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Location
Illinois
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Engineer
mgookin said:
Why don't electric cars have solar panels on the roof?


Edit: Googled my own question and the answer is here (not enough room on the top of the car)
http://my.teslamotors.com/fr_BE/node/3925
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Not trying to side track the thread, but: The boats to Alcatraz island have solar panels and wind turbines on them.

Do wind turbines make any sense at all? Don't they just cause more drag when the boat is in motion, and wind up wasting more energy due to friction and such than they create? They didn't even turn when the boat was docked - only when the boat was moving.

I think I've just solved the energy crisis - we just put wind turbines on top of every car, and everyone should drive faster and farther so they create more energy:happysad:
 
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GoldDigger

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Location
Placerville, CA, USA
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steve66 said:
Not trying to side track the thread, but: The boats to Alcatraz island have solar panels and wind turbines on them.

Do wind turbines make any sense at all? Don't they just cause more drag when the boat is in motion, and wind up wasting more energy due to friction and such than they create? They didn't even turn when the boat was docked - only when the boat was moving.

I think I've just solved the energy crisis - we just put wind turbines on top of every car, and everyone should drive faster and farther so they create more energy:happysad:
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Wind turbines make sense on some boats, particularly sailboats, since they provide a way to keep the batteries (for lights, navigation, communication, etc.) charged without running an engine. The small amount (if any) of additional drag is a good tradeoff against the fuel required for the same charging on a long voyage between ports.
A towed water turbine generator can be used the same way, with possibly greater drag penalties and more complexity.
 
Fulthrotl

Fulthrotl

~Autocorrect is My Worst Enema.~
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HB, CA (19 Hrs. 22 Min. from Winged Horses)
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E
bphgravity said:
The #1 reported complaint from EV owners is range anxiety. Range anxiety also happens to be the #1 reason individuals, when asked, won't buy an EV.
Click to expand...

friend of mine just bought a tesla.
now, he's suffering buyers remorse.

yeah, you can drive a tesla across country, using their
dedicated charging stations. along with everyone else.

you can drive to vegas from LA, and stop in barstow for
a charge. there are 8 stalls, near an outlet mall, and a starbucks.

"Charging from 10% to 80% is quick and typically provides ample
range to travel between most Superchargers".

"Tesla Superchargers provide 170 miles of range in as little as 30 minutes."

-Tesla website.

now, you pull into lenwood, on friday night, going to vegas for the weekend,
and there is everyone who owns a tesla ahead of you.... waiting....

22 of them. are there 22 tesla owners going to vegas this weekend?

average time on the cord, call it 40 minutes. so say the queue moves twelve per hour.
2 hours to get to the cord, half hour to charge, and you smoke off into the darkness.

i'd love a tesla, but it doesn't work for anything other than a fast grocery getter.
local commutes with frequent returns to home are best.
 
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