Bay Area - Which Charging Cards Should I Get?

[mposki]

Curious which charging cards/programs I should get in conjunction with taking delivery of my Model S?!?!? Live on the peninsula, have a shortish commute (50mi roundtrip to SSF) and will have a HPWC at home running at a full 80A. The road trips I will take are generally to Reno or the LA area so I assume I would use SCs the whole way. So the questions...

1. do I need cards/memberships at all (I tend to be a better safe than sorry kind of person)?
2. if yes to #1 then which ones?

Thanks to the expertise on this forum as always!

 

[stevej119]

Very unlikely you'll have any need for a charging card. You will never have to charge for your commute and will have SC's available for your trips to Reno, LA and most other locations to which you may be driving, IMHO.

 

[mposki]

That was my assumption as well. I was considering getting a chademo adapter as my back-up plan but also feel that I could just pay non-member charging rates if I was to ever need a commercial charger.

 

[Gizmotoy]

Chargepoint has a significant presence in the area. I've used mine a number of times, and often businesses use them or provide free charging with your card. It can be useful up in Napa, for example, or at least until Tesla opens the Supercharger there next year. Similarly, it allowed me enough charge to make day trips to Carmel without any other stops.

If you're a "better safe than sorry kind of person," I'd definitely get at least a Chargepoint card. You may not use it regularly but they're free, so you're not out anything in doing so and it may save you one day. Especially since occasionally a station will only work with an actual physical card for whatever reason (technical difficulties).

 

[anxman]

I carry ChargePoint just in case. I've found them useful in a pinch when I need to charge in SF and can't make it to my destination.

Granted, the new superchargers along 101 in Mountain View and San Mateo help a lot, but it doesn't hurt to carry Chargepoint.

 

[TEG]

Many of the Chargepoints will accept a credit card with RFID PayPass chip, so even if you don't have a member card you may be able to use them.
Also, many public (but fee based) charging stations can be activated remotely if you call the phone # printed on them and give a credit card # to the support agent.

- - - Updated - - -

Another thread with similar title:
http://www.teslamotorsclub.com/showthread.php/48593-Which-charging-cards-should-I-get

 

[Khatsalano]

I rank non-Tesla networks like this, and I have the cards to all of them:

1. ChargePoint (#1 by a large margin)
2. Blink
3. NRG EVgo (Crappiest by a large margin because they are often not working and customer service can't fix them. It feel like you're a Comcast customer).

- K

 

[Blu Zap]

Good info. I too am in the Bay Area with my own HPWC at home. Superchargers work great, but sometimes our destinations take us away from that network. A recent trip to Carlsbad, the hotel had a HPWC that worked great and was very convenient. I do have a Chargepoint card as a backup and will probably get a Blink card. No cost and good backup. But as mentioned many businesses have chargers as a free service. There is an electrical company in Healdsburg that I use when I am there on a weekend. But now with the Petaluma Supercharger, not really needed.

 

[David99]

I rank non-Tesla networks like this, and I have the cards to all of them:

1. ChargePoint (#1 by a large margin)
2. Blink
3. NRG EVgo (Crappiest by a large margin because they are often not working and customer service can't fix them. It feel like you're a Comcast customer).

- K

My experience with Blink is mostly bad. eVGO is awesome here. All stations I went to work great. Blink has so many bad stations. But one way or another, I think it's good to have all these cards available just in case. I would add Green Lots. I also have Semacharge but I have never used it.