Walgreen's ChargePoint stations no longer free

Another update: I emailed 350Green to express disappointment about the recent fees for charging. They said they had to add fees because the retailers were upset that some EVs were using the free stations for home charging (leaving cars for overnight charging).

And they corrected their website information so they aren't saying they have free charging anymore.

 

My local mall also is now charging for a charge, since June 1st. I was quite surprised!

 

Do ChargePoint stations indicate if there is a fee, and what it is? Is the above display indicative of what one would see on a non-free station? At $2/hr, there is no way I would charge my PiP. Basically, it would be like paying $12/gal for gasoline. And at 58mpg in HV mode, one is not exactly being hard on the environment.

A kind of weird side note: the classic suicide scenario of running the car in the closed garage to kill oneself with carbon monoxide poisoning is apparently getting very unlikely these days, given the exceedingly low CO emissions of any modern car, not just hybrids.

 

Once your Prius warmed up, the ICE would shut off anyways!!! Maybe people will try and electrocute themselves but trying to cut through the orange wires.

 

The one at the Walgreen's I used to go to did not have anything like that on the display- after I tried to activate with my charge point card, it said that my card (which is only used on free stations/no credit card connected with it), could not be used. On the Charge Point iPhone App, it does specify if the station has a fee or not.

 

At what price point would be fair for both sides? I'm thinking $0.50/hr? I use to shop at Walgreens very often not because I really enjoyed the store but for the free charging. I'd find reasons to buy at Walgreens just because I was getting a free charge. I'm defiantly sad to see Walgreen go this direction.

 

So, does this mean that EV's will find it easier to NOT end up finding the evse has been ICE'd - by a ride that was sitting there 'full' - for over an hour? ... gee ... that's to bad.

Let's see ... 3.5kWh x 2hrs ... gets you 7kWh in 2 hours ... at 5 miles per kWh that'd be 35 miles for $4.
So unless you can charge at 6kW ... the cost of gas (presuming 50mpg) the charge is higher than gas. But that's ok, because when the EVSE owners/infrastructure maintainer grasps exactly WHY the EVSE under-use is happening, they'll necessarily be forced to either drop the price, or simply charge by the kWh ... rather than a flat rate per hour. The REAL beneficiaries of the payola policy will be to EV owners - presuming fee's are based off of actual "parking stall" usage. Otherwise, PHEV's and regular ol' ICE cars will simply continue to use the charge stall as a regular parking stall, due to no penalty/consequences for leaving the stall blocked to the detriment of EV's that actually may need the stall just to get home, but can't get to it. This is the kind of inconsiderateness that EV owners necessrily HAVE to count on - when they plan their commute. Otherwise, they're stranded.

I hope plug-in owners don't end up being branded as cheep skates . . . and end up only going to store lots to grab a few pennies of electricity - and not sponsoring the store's EVSE infrastructure efforts. I HAVE seen that happening ... grabing a charge, and walking off to another location. Bummer. I'd HOPE plug-in owners actually SUPPORT those stores that spend money on plug-in infrastructure. I used to never buy at wallgreens - ever, but since going plug-in ... I've spent hundreds at Walgreens ... even tho I could easily get a better price on stuff elsewhere. Too bad so many find that philosophy to be dumb ... or at least it it often appears that way.
.

 

The part the bugs me is the $2 minimum. If I plug in for 20 minutes while I wait for my prescription to be filled I am charged for a full hour.

I made this mistake once. Never again.

 

These charging stations will need to move to a kwh charge. In my community a kwh is $0.11 so $0.25 per hour on a level 2 charger would be appropriate. If the parking spot would normally require a fee, then add the $0.25 per hour to the parking fee.

I like what my local utility is doing at the moment. $25 buys 6 months of unlimited charging at all of the chargepoint stations. If I had to pay $2/hr as a non-subscriber I would probably skip the plug.

 

Is it fair that wi-fi is free at the hotel or restaurant? Is it fair that the parking is free at the mall? Is it fair for the state to classify all sellers of electricity by the kWh as public utilities? Is it fair that parking at the NJT train stations on the Northeast Corridor is metered while parking at stations on other lines are free?

Some businesses validate parking. Perhaps validating or refunding charging could be an option.

Electricity delivered to my house costs 18c per kWh. If I intend to exceed the range of my vehicle what is electricity worth to me? What's gas worth if the next station is 500 miles away?

Tesla says a 1 hour charge replaces 31 miles. At $2 per hour that is equivalent to $3.497 per gallon of gas at my lifetime average. I bought gas today at $3.099 per gallon so the charge is "expensive" but I don't believe it is unreasonable. On a 240v 40A line a charge for 100 miles worth of range takes 3 hours 8 minutes so the time it takes to make a 225 mile trip can easily double.

A 1 hour minimum may be reasonable at a location where a patron is expected to spend that much time like hotels, movies, or restaurants.

 

That Tesla Model S has a 10kw charger vs the 3.3kw charger in a prius or a volt. I don't think the ChargePoint stations will support much over 7kw (the largest model they have is 32A @ 240V )

Charging Model S | Tesla Motors#

 

With the Prius, 2.2kw from the wall is the maximum

 

Residential use rates are very cheap in comparison to commeracial rates - but business rates are often 4 times as expensive (or more) as what you pay at home.

SGH-I717R ? 2

 

huh?

commercial rates are typically a combination of load (kw) and use (kwh), with use at much lower rates per kwh than residential. the kwh rate might be as low as $0.02/kwh.

when a business installes charging stations they should be programmed to only operate below the peak load. this is good for the utility and for the business. that may mean the charging stations are "closed" for an hour in the afternoon when the utility company is stuggling to generate electricity, but that is why we charge at offpeak hours.

 

I should have checked on the prius. I just got a volt last week.

If I could upgrade something on the volt it would be the internal charger, from 3.3kw to 6.6kw, so that it could take better advantage of the L2 charging stations around town and get a full charge in 2 hours.

 

I agree with you. Else, you cab pay the $2 if you really need a charge.

 

just for comparison ... L2 Charging rates

prius plugin would get 6 miles per hour, limited by the 2.2kw internal charger
volt would get 10 miles per hour, limted by the 3.3kw internal charger
tesla S would get 21 miles per hour limted by Chargepoint network stations (7kw max)
tesla S would get 31 miles per hour if the L2 station could deliver 10kw

 

maybe the approach should be free charging during offpeak hours and $2/hr during peak.

 

$25 for 6 months of unlimited charging? where are you located that this kind of plan is available? Someone should devise a device that allows a prius plug-in to charge at a charge station, and then supply that electricity to the house. 3-4kWh is probably enough to get me through a regular week night and the morning commute to work.

 

As of June 1st, the Stanford Shopping Mall in Palo Alto is also charging $2 an hour to charge. $3 to get 11 to 15 miles of AER is pretty steep. But since I parked in the EV parking spot I felt obligated to actually charge the car. I probably won't park in the EV spots again. Or charge unless it's at a free or really cheap charging station.