The cost of ChargePoint charging - worth it?

Hi! I'd suggest giving our 24/7 driver support line a ring at 1-888-758-4389, or email [email protected] with the station location. Our team will try to get in touch with the right people to see what solutions they might be able to offer.

 

I think I found the contractor.

 

Current Status:
14,920 miles since purchase in May; Over 50% HV mode; 147.71 gallons purchased, 11.3 gal. still in tank. (Over 100 MPG)

In September, drove to WDW as follows: (All stops planned in advance using ChargePoint App.)
1. 1200: Left home in Maryland fully charged.
2. 1240: Stopped at "Welcome to Maryland" rest stop, 30 miles from home, just before VA border. Free L2 Chargepoint. Talked with personnel, read brochures, jawboned with janitor, rested at picnic table. (Strictly a gratuitous stop... because I could... and it was free.)
3. 1430: Drove for about six hours to Wilson, SC. Another free L2 Chargepoint. Walking tour of Small Town, America was very interesting. Checked out their unique "Whirligig Park." Cool!
4. 2000: Left for Savannah, GA, my next planned stop. Free Chargepoint in an Outlet Mall. Not much to do at 0200 but take a Power Nap.
Purchased about 9 gal. of gasoline. (Could not find any "ethanol free" due to hurricane. Only regular available.)
5. 0400: Drove to Orlando, checked into (borrowed) Timeshare digs by 1000 hrs. Found another free Chargepoint nearby.
6. Used mostly EV for a week at Wilderness Lodge. Used 110V outlet to charge up at the Lodge, interspersed with many $1.50 (minimum charge) sessions at Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Animal Kingdom, and DownTown Disney parking lots. (Normal extra charge for preferred parking is $40. And Chargepoints were as close as or closer to the entrances. Of course, normal parking was free.(Included with stay.)
7. Did some HV excursions in Southern FL to visit relatives, racking up some mixed EV & non-EV miles. Used 110v at sister-in-law's home.
8. Before putting family on plane back North, topped off traction battery in parking lot near Orlando Airport. (Electricity:free, Parking: $6.00)
9. 1100: Topped off petrol and reversed plan for Northward travel.
10. 1700: Arrived in Savannah, GA during business hours. Took in a movie while waiting for free Chargepoint.
11. 2000: Left for another another visit to Wilson, SC, this time arriving in the middle of the night.
12. 0200: Wilson has preserved a turn-of-the-century railroad station, whose parking lot has a free Chargepoint. Time for a nap.
13. 1000: Welcome to Maryland. Time for another free charge-up.
14. 1300: Back at home.

Totals: 10,750 - 8,286 = 2,464 miles using 8.97 + 8.37 + 8.86 + 8.27 = 34.47 gallons of fuel = 71.48 MPG.
All driving done at speed limit +1 MPH.

 

Great trip report! Love WDW!

 

Reading this story: Will Public Electric Car Charging Become More Expensive Than Gas?

What do you think? If everything goes EV one day, how high the cost of electricity or charging will go up? Is the solar a better option for all of us to advocate?

 

Long term, solar will eventually drive the price of electricity down drastically, even with more and more electricity usage.

 

the handicap situation is not as easy to solve as it might seem, as there are multiple competing interests. On the one hand, it's best to put Chargers out in the South 40 because knuckleheads will always park where they don't belong, & most parking abusers aren't willing to walk from the location that's farthest away. On the other hand, the distant installs often mean the install will be much more expensive. The other competing interest is that it forces plugin handicap folk to park far away. But setting up a special handicap spot real close for the plug in handicapped makes for a much more expensive install, when it involves multiple charging stall locations.
One of our employee parking structures is 6 stories tall - plus 1 underground level. Our 10 Chargepoint stalls are in that basement-level;


The "closest to the elevator" location (just out of the picture) is reserved for handicap charging, with the sign above it - provisioning "Use Last". Not really enforceable, because it might be the last stall when you get there, and the only one used later in the day. The latter situation doesn't happen often anymore, as there are over 200 registered plugins now at work.

I acknowledge that potential Mark, however Cali is experiencing a different phenomena, being a state that has been heavily incentivized via renewables. What we are finding is that the increased power amount generated by renewables (solar/wind) , is causing a smaller amount of income stream coming into the various utility companies. The power company's CEO's & VP's are no way going to cut their income to under 1 million each, & so that money has to come from somewhere. Raise rates? Of course! I think that's why SoCal Edison despises Tesla, as they are doing an end-run around the utility's ripoff fee system by incorporating solar power & battery storage to many of their big supercharger locations.
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I agree that it will likely happen as an end-run around the utility. We will likely see more and more micro grid situations arise. I think this will be the catalyst for ultimate price reductions.

 

I just got my Prime and the ChargePoint and would agree that finding a charge station and paying more to operate the vehicle is just not a viable option. Gas is really inexpensive right now $2.33 in my area of Florida.

 

Everyone seems to be arriving at that same conclusion. If the electricity is cheap enough (and some people here are getting very low rates for charging at home off hours, etc.) then charge away. Certainly a "free" charging station is worth it. BUT, paying more than about $1 for a charge just means you're willing to pay more to drive in EV mode. That said, I really like driving in EV mode, I'm just not a person whose willing to pay more for it.

 

My town just set a fee on the use of their Chargepoints at $0.18 per kWh plus $1/hr parking after 2 hours. I blame the Teslae and Datsun Leaves that have been sucking up the free juice up until now (as have I, for the last 3-1/2 months since I got my Prime). Still, it beats paying $0.23 at the house. Figure I'm okay unless gas drops below $1.65/gal (currently at $2.50).

 

When we acquired our Prime, it replaced a 2009 Cadillac STS which had a Northstar V-8 engine. When we bought the Cadillac, we knew it was going to use a lot of expensive high-octane premium fuel, but given a fairly low number of miles driven each year, I decided that the additional $300 or so in annual fuel cost was really an "entertainment tax."

Interestingly, the Cadillac had some interesting features which were "cutting edge" in 2009: a heads-up display, adaptive cruise control, forward collision avoidance, satellite radio, bluetooth hands-free speakerphone, voice commands, nav system with touch-screen display, and GM's "OnStar" emergency communications system.

The Prime, of course, is a much smaller and lighter vehicle, but the driver's seat dimensions are not that much different (I am a big person!) and all the 2009 Cadillac premium bells-and-whistles are part of the Prime Advanced package. Not to mention that the 2017 sticker price of the Prime was slightly less than half of the 2009 sticker price of the Cadillac.

Also, the Prime well suited to our urban lifestyle where most of our driving is within the city and consists of short trips here and there.

My new "entertainment tax" is driving the Prime in EV mode for 95% of the time. Given our local electric rates, I thing the cost per mile vs gasoline is about the same. But, even if it were not, I'd consider the cost of running in EV mode to be my new "entertainment tax" -- which comes with the added bonus of feeling environmentally virtuous.

 

I doubt I’ll use any of the free ChargePoint credit. The nearest ChargePoint location is about six miles in a direction I seldom travel. Plus, there is NOTHING near the chargers to do for 2+ hours. I’d “burn” about 1/4 the charge just getting back home.

Three years ago, when I got my Fiat 500e, I’d go to a free charger. I soon realized it really wasn’t free because I’d buy a $4 cup of coffee, or something more expensive to kill time.

 

The Chargepoint cards that came with the Volt are still in the glovebox. There just aren't any places to charge around here.

 

I'm willing to pay for unused ChargePoint cards. PM me if interested.

 

I’m visiting Florida ( from Michigan) and the charge point card is very helpful. I can’t charge at my condo parking garage. There are free chargers that I have used at the airport cellphone lot, the outlet mall, and a manatee viewing site. The card is needed to unlock the charger and use it. My wife likes plugging in and shopping or going to lunch. I won’t be using more than a couple of dollars of my free Toyota credits, though, because they expire at the end of the month. I recommend keeping your account active for this reason.

 

This is an important point.
The concept behind charging is that you can avoid this. This is what gas cars do.
The idea behind car charging is that you don’t go out of your way. While you are doing things you normally would, such as grocery shopping, trips to the mall or other stores, movies, work, restaurants, etc you plug in and go about your business.
This does of course rely upon availability of chargers. I have not needed to go out of my way to reach a charger in about 4 years (I charge at home mostly).
That said, the reasons many charge while they are out and about may not be important to you. In that case, don’t. You have a very flexible car, use it however is most convenient for you.

 

Decided to give ChargePoint a try today as a test and wanted to see if it was easy to use. My results are as follows:
I went to a local park just 3 blocks from my office and there were 4 stations located there. It was angled parking, so I pulled straight in. Went up to the ChargePoint box and tried scanning my card I had registered but it would never take after a few tries. Luckily I had the app on my phone and it worked right away by holding the phone up to their scanner. Unplug the cord from the ChargePoint box and plugged in my car. The cord just barely made it to the back of the car. Everything working good so far. But here is the kicker, the price is outrages. I was there for only 6 minutes and the price was $1.03 but then I noticed when checking the app for my receipt it rounded it up to $2.00. So much for me using the ChargePoint chargers at one of our city parks. No wonder they were all available. Sorry for the long rant.

 

The prices are all on the app. Not hard to check out the prices before you plug in. That's on you.

Also, ChargePoint doesn't set the price. Varies everywhere, with many of them being free.

 

One of the VERY close auto dealers has a 50kW Chargepoint DC unit that changes their fees WAY too often, which means chargepoint & plugshare apps are sometimes inaccurate, which can be pretty exasperating. Right now they are charging a flat $5. That's typically a rip-off. You'd have to pump 10kWh just to bring the cost down to 50¢/kWh. BUT .... take the better ½'s Model X there & soak up 60/70kWh's? Yea! 7¢/kWh!! Buaahahahaaa!

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