Are charging stations worthwhile?

you're supposed to stretch your legs, do a little shopping, catch forty, go for a walk, get a bite, or whatever floats your boat.
but the real point is about traveling away from home, when you can't charge anywhere but a public station.
think of it like gas stations when we were switching from horses, but they didn't have the home fueling option. mostly.
i used to charge at whole foods while we were shopping, just because it was free. now that it is a charge point, i haven't used it since.

 

When you ask about charging stations in general, than yes they are very much worth it. One key is that not everyone shares the same technology in their vehicle nor the same use case of their vehicle{s}.
You mention having to wait a few hours for a charge. A level 2 EVSE will take an hour or two to charge the best selling toyota plugins
Again, satisfaction with current technologies depends a great deal on the use case.
Level 2 EVSE is not the only technology out there at charging stations, although (so far) it is the majority of what is available here in the US.
Further, as technology evolves the standards may change which ( form what I've read a year of so ago @toyota ) is why toyota has not released the traction pack induction charging technology here in the US with the prius prime. They are waiting for the US to adopt an induction charging standard before offering us the pad.
Don't get confused by the induction charger in the car for cell phones, it's the same concept and the inferred structure is in place while advancing at an incredible rate with the phones. I just wish the gas mileage of the average vehicle sold in the US would start to catch up with some of the other advances we have to live with.

 

I'm not sure about induction charging...Sounds like a process that would be less efficient than any direct connect and one of the current problem with charging is that it is too slow. How fast is induction charging?

Here are some approximations from the data I've seen...
Gas = 100 miles driving / minute of refueling
Tesla 120KW super charger = 5 miles of driving / minute of charging
Prius = 0.2 miles of driving / minute of charging

There was chatter in another thread about Tesla maybe tripling the charger power, not clear whether the batteries can absorb that yet but even if we do end-up with mega chargers and something like 20 miles of driving / minute of charging...It's still quite a ways off what we as a culture are used to.

The good news here is that most people can mostly live with home charging once the range gets up there a bit. AND, as a top-it off technology, numbers like 10-20 miles/minute are likely to get most people the rest of the way through their day unless they are doing long distance road trips. The long distance travelers (say 500 miles in a day) are still looking at some overhead unless they can perfectly match their charging needs with their bio-break needs.

 

The cost of stations as with the cost of evse’s must get down to commodity pricing to be viable, this is what happened to gas stations a hundred years ago.

If EVSEs and charge stations are cheap and the markup on electricity is similar to gas at a station along with the gas station model munchies and other stuff
It makes sense.

With EVSE’s edging closer to $99 everyday I have no doubt the charge stations will eventually get down to “extension cord” prices and then the model can work without price gouging

 

If I'm shopping or going to the movies and a little more juice will get me back without the ICE, I can see plugging in. If I'm in a hurry, no.

 

Good point
We wouldn't know for sure until toyota offers the pad either as an option or standard equipment.
There is at least one older thread around here before prime was released that discusses induction and possible future applications such as induction charge on highways.

 

It's worth it to me. It means that if I need to run an errand after dinner my car will be fully charged instead of maybe half charged. On the weekends it allows me to stay in EV mode all the time because the battery recharges so quickly between errands. I installed a 32 amp station to accomodate any future EV I buy.