Electric Vehicle Charging Stations

Anyone on here an expert? I have a few questions:

What types of businesses usually have these? Follow up: are they commonly found at gas stations/convenience stores?

How many chargers are usually at a site?

How many vehicles can be charged by one charger?

Are they universal or brand specific?

Do you pay for them like you would gas, or are they provided as a service for patrons of the business hosting the charger?

If you do pay, are you paying the business or are you paying the local utility? Follow up: is this a profit center for the business hosting the charger or is it just done as a way to draw in customers for the hotel/restaurant/store?

 

I've seen them at some hotels and some higher end or hippy dippy grocery stores.

Usually a free service at least from what little I've paid attention. I'm sure there are some pay to use ones around. Never seen one at a gas station.

 

Not certain, but I would think the connections would be standard. Sales depend on infrastructure and having multiple charger types would be self defeating.

Currently (bad pun) it is a mix of free and pay (see, i didn't use charge). I would expect the free to go away as more electric vehicles are on the road.

 

The Bronx Zoo has them for free use

 

Like others have said, they can be found at hotels and government facilities. They are also becoming pretty common within newer parking decks that serve residences and retail locations. Airports are becoming another common place for charging stations, ATL has been in the process of installing well over 100 charging stations.

Typically, you can find at least 2 charging stations for those locations who have them. Most stations are configured with 2 receptacles and can charge 2 vehicles with reserved parking.

They are pretty universal, most are Level 1 (12-24 hour) and Level 2 (4-8 hour charge) chargers. The only ones that are a bit more specific are those that serve the Teslas. There are quite a few apps that can help you locate chargers and see what the availability is.

Unless it is a Level 3 charger, you don't usually have to pay. In most locations it is just a service to offer to patrons.

 

There's a couple of chargers at at our local Walgreens.

 

I've seen them at the turnpike rest areas and we have a few outside our county administration building. They appear to be free.


Edit:
I figured this probably existed.

https://www.plugshare.com/

 

So I was going to ask if those charging stations worked on electric motorcycles. It appears from the information on Zero's site that they can if you get an optional installed accessory on certain 2015 and newer bikes. I could see some pissed off electric cars doing something bad to your bike if you didn't move it as soon as it was charged. I have even heard about some rage against plug in hybrid cars taking up spots / chargers from pure electrics.

 

There's a bunch at a popular restaurant here. They also appear to be free.

 

So looking at Manhattan, there are many in parking garages throughout. So I'm assuming if you're a monthly parker, you can use it.

There seems to be a "Blink" service. from a nearby NJ zip $".03 per 30 seconds for non blink members. .02 for 30 seconds for blink members. So it's 3.60 per hour or 2.40. It charges at 14 miles per hour. So expensive."

 

That is outstanding. Thank you!

 

Tesla Supercharging stations are proprietary to Tesla cars, and currently free. With the Model 3 coming there apparently will be a cost depending on the options level you choose at purchase.

Current cars on the road will remain grandfathered in as free.

-jim

 

They are more and more present over here. Some restaurant chains offer them at all their branches, shopping malls, even public stations on the streets. Being a major electricity producer, The State is very proactive in developping quick charging stations.

 

Must be because I live in Oregon. But there are charging stations everywhere. Grocery stores, coffee shops, city owned ones. Some you pay for, some you don't. I'll relate my experience having had a Tesla on loan for a couple weeks. My buddy needed to take a road trip to the sticks, wasn't sure what the charging situation was going to be like so we swapped. Lessons I learned about owning an electric car when you don't have a charger at home.

1. The public chargers are anything but "rapid". They range from 15 miles to 30 miles per hour of charging time (this tech is rapidly being upgraded though). Prior to taking possession of the car, I asked my friend how difficult it would be to deal with, because I live in a condo and have no exterior outlets near where the car would be. The reply was "oh man, chargers are everywhere and they are fast.". I stupidly took his word for it and simply ran the battery down to the point where the car was screaming at me that I should stop passing charging stations. Turned out, my friend had never actually charged it anywhere but home and was unaware that the chargers all over town aren't that quick.

2. There are a couple of different plugs, but they are all heading towards one standard. You can simply swap an adapter on if you need to. My personal experience was that NOBODY uses the Tesla one. The two that the stock Tesla cord fits in are the actual Tesla Superchargers (more on that in a minute) and the slow one that was around 15 miles per hour of charging time. The more rapid one needed a different plug which my buddy was unaware of because he's an idiot.

3. People who hang out at charging stations with their electric cars are annoying as hell, just plug your car in and walk away. It's like some stupid club that you just don't want to be a member of. Every single time a few would walk up and start talking about how they were saving the world or some shit and giving me really awkward hi-fives.

4. Almost every electric car has the charging port on the front. Remember this if you get a Tesla which has them on the back. You will at some point piss off everyone as you back down the wrong way on a one way street in downtown because you saw an open "rapid" charger and the stupid cord wasn't long enough to reach to the back of the car. The motorcycle cop watching this process will be laughing too hard to write you a ticket though.

5. Tesla specific. The superchargers will charge the car up to 85 percent or so in under 30 minutes. They just aren't in town. As a result of running the battery near dead, then realizing the public chargers suck. I had the brilliant idea that a Tesla dealership would likely have a supercharger in it...........Yeah.....uh no. The told me to ask the car, which directed me 25 miles outside of town. Which meant I had to spend an hour to get the charge up to 30 miles of range left, and at that point had made the mental decision that if it died on the highway, I was going to leave the piece of shit there and let my buddy go get it when he got back. Turns out that range calculator is crazy accurate. Since my Chiro was near the supercharger, it ended up not being a big deal.

6. Once I figured all the quirks out and got a full charge back into it, it was really easy to keep it topped off as I ran errands all over town. The supercharger network is set up at roughly half "tank" range all across the country on major highways, so roadtrips are actually not a big deal. In the next 3 years, I suspect the charging issues will be a thing of the past, and if I was a normal person with somewhere to plug it in at night. I never would have had a problem.

 

In 30 minutes, I can have 600+ miles of range and a 27 minute head start on you dildo driving douches.

 

... or they can pull out of their garage fully charged and ready for a days worth of driving while you make a stop at the fuel station to fill, thus up leaving you 5 minutes behind.

 

The truck fills while I'm getting a coffee. Game. Set. Match.

Bitch.

 

I have a friend with a Tesla. He and his wife went from Austin to Dallas and back in the toaster. According to his wife a full 3 hours of their day was wasted charging or waiting in line for chargers and she would "never take another road trip in that fancy golf cart". I am sure they are fine if you are just running around town and charge them every day but they are not very good if you are going more than the distance of a single charge. This is an older article and hopefully they have improved charge times but even a supercharger takes an hour to charge the car. Standard wall outlet charges at a rate of 5 miles range per hour and 240 will charge at 31 miles range per hour...
https://www.cars.com/articles/2013/11/how-quickly-does-the-tesla-model-s-battery-charge/

 

Yeah, my whole issue with it was it couldn't be my only car. And for as much as it cost, you could have an RS7. Also why my buddy swapped cars with me for a roadtrip. However, if you live in a metro area and have a second car then sure. I can absolutely see the appeal though, and at the rate technology is advancing it won't be long before the current downsides go away.