ChargePoint Network - BAAQMD The Prius Plug- in is on the eligible list for this rebate. Here's the deal: 1) You have to own a qualifying car 2) You have to live within the Bay Area Air Quality District 3) You have to pay $900+ tax for the ChargePoint charger 4) You have to pay THEIR installer 5) You get the $700 paid back in three annual installments It seems like a decent deal. I think the trick is to install the 240V line yourself.
I think this is interesting...After reading the FAQ what happens is you pay $900+ 8-10% sales tax. You pay the installer as well. Then after year 1 your get the first annual payment, etc. I'd consider this because besides owning a PIP I will probably get an EV sometime in the next few years. But at that point I would think that I'd want TOU billing from PG&E. I'm unclear if EV TOU is different from whole house TOU and it the charging station needs its own meter. Anyone looked into this? Mike
Thanks Rebound for bringing this to our attention. As 3PMike wrote, the ChargePoint FAQ lists the cost of the charger at $900+tax. I assume this is the hardware only. Today I tried calling ChargePoint at two different numbers to ask what their installation might cost. The first number I called was their main customer service number (877-758-4389). After lots of ringing and menu options, I spoke with someone who said I called the wrong number to ask questions about cost. He gave me another 877 number. I called that number and after lots of ringing, menu options, waiting again, I was finally sent to voicemail. I hung up. Is it just me? Or are other people finding ChargePoint's customer service to sound like it's offshored to South Asia? I called them months back, too. Sorry. Off topic (but I am not impressed with ChargePoint's customer service). Critical to this thread is how much one would have to pay THEIR installer. Anyone know? I can imagine two prices: one price would be the price for both home wiring and the charger installation, the other would be for the charger installation alone. I'm interested in the latter because I'd do the home prep myself. Now, in terms of whether such a charger is worth the time, trouble, and money even if it's $900 total - $700 rebate? What do PiPle think? With our PiPs, we save no more than $200 per year on gasoline cost by charging once every single day of the year and using that full charge every single day of the year. Most of us charge at home on weekdays in the evening, when it doesn't make much difference whether it takes 1.5 or 3hrs to charge. Sure, a quicker Level 2 charger would be sweet for the weekends when we run multiple short trips. But is it worth the time, trouble, and money for Pip owners? On the other hand, if like 3PMike one plans to get an EV or another PEV down the road, the current rebate might be a good chance to snag a rebate on a charger that will be used quite a bit in the future. Final conclusion for me will depend on the total cost of the charger itself ($900+tax) and the ChargePoint installation ($???.??). Let's see what people report on the total cost.
Burrito! There isn't a straight answer to your question. With a PiP, your charge time goes down to about an hour and a half. A 240V charger will never pay for itself, but on a Saturday, you can run a short errand, recharge, run another errand, etc. With a pure EV, you can cut charging time by 75% -- you double the voltage AND double the amperage. Some EV's can use even higher amperage, but you get the idea.
The "deal" turns on how much (if at all ... but often it happens) you get gouged for installation. When rebate/free money is involved, often that gets construed as a licence for contractors to over charge. We looked into having a separate TOU meter installed - and the typical contractor quote was $1,200 !!! Gee - maybe after 150 years, it'd pay for itself.
Definitely. But if you run your own (permitted) 240V outlet, all they have to do is mount the EVSE and plug it in.
ChargePoint/BAAQMD is probably providing the rebate as part of some federal grant. That federal grant probably has language in it about how installers have to be paid some sort of minimum prevailing wage that the government would pay a government contractor. So the inflated pricing that ChargePoint's installer charges may not be price gouging by the installer, but by the government. As to PG&E TOU metering: there's 2 version. One is whole-house TOU metering. No separate meter needed, and your existing smart meter is probably already setup to handle this. The other is a separate meter for the charging, which gives you a separate baseline from your household's baseline. They'll provide the meter for free, but you have to do the electrical work necessary to support the second meter. Both rates have tiers that can get pretty pricey. PG&E is in the middle of getting approval for a much more simplified EV rate schedule. Tiers have been eliminated, which will help people who ended up in Tiers 3 & 4 on regular basis. TOU is still in effect. Whole house and separate metering is still available as well. Depending upon what your monthly usage is, the new EV rate could save a bit of money. I think Jeff N posted in another thread the PDF from PG&E showing the new proposed rates.
Btw, don't forget that IRS is offering a 30% EVSE rebate this year. So your cost for the hardware itself is actually a net payment: $630-$700=$70, so basically you get your tax covered. If I had a house…I'd do it in a heartbeat.
