Question...

I sleep. (I can only charge at home)

 

SI HOC LEGERE SCIS NIMIVM ERVDITIONIS HABES

 

well i dont know. i have yet to use the chargepoint card as im eather charging overnight at home while asleep or working at my job while charging in their EV spot. both places are free as i dont pay utilities at home or work.

 

Free electricity feels even more efficient.

 

great! perhaps @Team ChargePoint can enlighten us as to what is required to get an evse in the area.

 

Request an Electric Vehicle Charging Station - ChargePoint

 

there's only 2 Chargepoints convenient to my regular driving route;
1 - at a specialty "SoDoSoPa" mall that has a really nice card store; in n out in 10 min
2 - once a month going to a meeting that has a charge station down the street, I'll sit and have a coffee for 20 min while surfing.

 

Charging on the road with the Prius Prime is inefficient. It takes over 2 hours to get the equivalent of 1/2 gallon of gas(30 miles of range). That is less than a 15 mph rate of charge,

Around town, it becomes a matter of convenience. If there is a charger near a location I will be at for some time, I will use it, but it is often 1/4 to 1/2 mile additional walk, I do need the exercise. Most of the time it is simply too inconvenient.

I had a left over balance of $96 on my “free” $100 ChargePoint card that came with the car when it expired after 3 months. I drove the car 10,000 miles in that time. I actively searched online for charging stations to exploit during my travels. Being in Cali much of the time, they were often near, often full, but usually not near enough.

The Prius Prime is simply not well suited, in my use case, for public charging. I attempted to charge twice during one of my weekly 350 mile commutes home. It added 4 hours to a 5.5 hour trip. The fuel savings from charging could have been easily gained by driving 5 mph slower, which only adds 1/2 hour to the trip.

The forte of the Prime is not the range that you can drive on electricity only, or it’s electric charge rate.. It’s forte is how efficiently it can use electricity to extend your fuel economy while using gasoline.

So for my use case, I am usually sleeping at home when my Prius Prime is charging. I suspect that is the case with a majority of the owners here.

Plus, when I did the math on public charging costs, it worked out to be the rough equivalent of $3.00 USD per gallon. Currently the inconvenience of paid public charging is more expensive than the extra 1/2 gallon of gas that I need to pump. The extra 20 seconds of pumping 1/2 gallon of gas costs $1.25 and saves me 2 hours at cost of $1.50. Even when the charging is “free” it is often not worth the time that it costs.

 

How do I complete this form to request that there be multiple ChargePoint stations installed at multiple businesses? E.g. Target, Walmart, Hannaford, Tim Hortons...
Also, I have no idea how many EV drivers each company has, or who to contact for each of them. So, what do I put in these fields?

 

I think this main issue is embedded in the question. Finding something to do while charging is the inherent problem. The question should be "are you charging while you are doing something you like?"

As long as I have to wait to charge, hybrid's win. And I also consider hybrid as having a second car for all those cases where electric only doesn't meet the need...Whether the ICE is internal or parked next to the electric, it's there partly because it still takes too damn long to charge. AND, I count the time and inconvenience of getting to a charging station as well as the time spent once there.

I charge at home. No chargers at work or at any places I tend to frequent although I do see a new bank of Tesla chargers near the grocery store I frequent...That's promising.

 

Umm...I do not know what I'm gonna do because I've only had mine for two days, and I didn't go anywhere yesterday, and I live at a condo atm so I can't plug it in at home lol. (plenty of charging stations around, however)

 

Just to be clear, I consider my time valuable. If charging can happen without costing me time...Great...
Waiting to charge makes no sense. Charging while shopping, eating, sleeping...That makes sense.
Using gas to avoid waiting is always the right choice. Life is too short to wait.

 

Obviously, my first choice is to charge at home while our Prime is sitting in our garage and we're doing normal at-home things. My second choice is to charge our Prime when there is a charging station near someplace which I'd be anyway.

I would not go out of my way to find a charging station, but given the choice of going to business/restaurant/theater/etc with a charging station versus going to one without, I will prefer the business/restaurant/theater/etc which has charging facilities available.

For example, as I mentioned earlier, there's the Big Bear Cafe:



Disclaimer: I am not affiliated with, nor was I paid by, the Big Bear Cafe, ChargePoint or TheLatest.com. Only a nominal number of electrons were used in the writing of the above review. Also, note that the review was written on August 16, 2017 and I did not join PriusChat until September 15, 2017.

 

Let's see ... while my car is charging on a ChargePoint EVSE, I'm typically complaining about how the ChargePoint app is a huge pain since it seems to require GPS to locate me within a few feet of the EVSE. Since the unit is underground, there's no signal so I can't ever start it with the stupid app.

 

The large regional hospital I work at built a new huge parking garage. They put 14 charge stations in it. They are free to use while you park in the garage. You just have to pay to park in the garage like everyone else. I park in one of the old garages. Parking services said they do not plan to add them to any other garage. There are two outlets in my parking garage that I was using to charge my car while at work--if the parking spot was open near them. My commute is 45 miles. I used them through Dec and Jan. They have now put lock boxes on the outlets. I don't understand why. It is free in the other garages, why can't we use the outlets for the same thing? They don't have to upgrade anything. Doesn't cost anything. I am not looking for an answer, just frustrated they won't let us use them. Typical state-run parking. I don't want to change to the new garage because it is over 1/2 mile from my office. The garage I park in has a waiting list to get a permit and is in high demand. I calculated out my savings. I work 3 days a week so I might save about $100 a year in gasoline costs if I could charge at work. Not worth it. So instead of less than one gallon to commute round trip, it might cost me a little over a gallon!

 

Is there a parking fee for the "old garage?"

The reason I ask is in Alabama, property owners can not charge for electricity. However, a parking fee can be charged. Businesses can offer free charging knowing they will generate revenue from the EV customers. So for $0.25-0.75 of electricity, they get the profit from their other sales.

Bob Wilson

 

Yes, all garages cost employees the same amount per month.

 

Then use the new garage and scarf a charge. Warning, if you lock the car with the J1772, it can not be removed. We are dealing with a broken J1772 when someone forced the connector out of a locked car (probably their own.)

Bob Wilson

 

They probably spent more on the new locking boxes and installation that it would cost to charge my car for a year or two. Note: this is a state-owned parking garage.

 

So if they put a BLINK charger on the circuit and it cost $0.02/min to park plugged in, would you use it?

Bob Wilson