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Electric vehicle charging stations fees, membership

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Hi everyone, just got my new model X and I am still figuring out how everything works as I never had EV before.
I dont have home plug installed so I keep charging over night with regular plug that gives me 50km over night. Later I found public plug (flo.ca/) near me and it says it was free.

When I try to use it, it says $0.00+ $0.50 for non members, I thought that was great, however later I found out they charge my credit card $10. They didnt send me receipt or anything. After I got home I registered on their website and now it asks me to get a "card" for $15.

Can someone please shine light on how many memberships there are, whats best and what "cards" do I need. I am going for 2000 km trip this Sunday and worry I will stock somewhere without charge due to membership or other limitations.

I checked government website, which mentions that they have 24 partners, and a list of chargers
Electric Vehicles Chargers Ontario

How to tell which chargers are free? What memberships more favorable? does anyone know where I can learn about it?
I know I should learn how to use car first, but I only have one week window for my trip. Thanks!
 
Hi everyone, just got my new model X and I am still figuring out how everything works as I never had EV before.
I dont have home plug installed so I keep charging over night with regular plug that gives me 50km over night. Later I found public plug (flo.ca/) near me and it says it was free.

When I try to use it, it says $0.00+ $0.50 for non members, I thought that was great, however later I found out they charge my credit card $10. They didnt send me receipt or anything. After I got home I registered on their website and now it asks me to get a "card" for $15.

Can someone please shine light on how many memberships there are, whats best and what "cards" do I need. I am going for 2000 km trip this Sunday and worry I will stock somewhere without charge due to membership or other limitations.

I checked government website, which mentions that they have 24 partners, and a list of chargers
Electric Vehicles Chargers Ontario

How to tell which chargers are free? What memberships more favorable? does anyone know where I can learn about it?
I know I should learn how to use car first, but I only have one week window for my trip. Thanks!


You mentioned you do not have home charging available? I take it that is in the works! If not, I cannot stress this enough... need to get a charger installed at home. That will be invaluable to you.

As for charge cards, make sure you have signed up for Chargepoint. It takes a week or two to receive their cards in the mail, but the good thing is once you complete the set up on line your account is activated right away and you can use your smartphone with charge points APP to activate a charger. Also, if you are at a charger and you are having trouble; you can call them and their customer service people will assist you and they can remote start any one of their charger plugs - they will ask you for the location and or ID number for that specific plug you are at.

Chargepoint does start with an immediate charge of $10/$15 dollars - cannot remember which, but many of their charge points are either free or free for the first 2/3 hours then there is a rate per hour after that.

On a personal observation level, I find FLO charging expensive for what it is. I do not use FLO.
 
If you do not mind me asking, is your 2000 KM trip in Canada or in the USA? if in Canada make sure, as cwave1, indicated above to sign into Plugshare. If you have not signed up for an account, that is okay as well; as their site enables you to use it as "guest" to at least obtain locations for charging. On their site you can "filter" for certain type of chargers or all available chargers in the area.

I would also recommend you look at supercharge.info to see all the available superchargers for your route ahead of time.

Hope your trip goes well, again congratulations on your Model X, welcome to EV motoring, I promise you you will never go back to ICE vehicle. This is a great place for fielding EV questions and advice. Happy New Year to you and all the best.
 
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If you do cross thru Quebec, try to use the FLO/Circuit Électrique chargers. They charge at rates of $1/hour - L2 and if you have a CHAdeMO adapter $10-hour for L3. If not, you always have L4 Superchargers
 
My recomendation would be to go online and get a FLO, Green Lots and charge point memberships. That will pretty much cover you. We just keep the swipe cards in the glove compartment. You can also use the apps for those companies to initiate the charge but we find the swipe cards easier.

Use plugshare on your smart phone to find charging locations. And PLEASE log in when you use a site. Not enough people do that. It is crowd sourced.

John
 
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Hi everyone, just got my new model X
Congratulations and welcome.
Screenshot_20180102-011246.jpg

Check for Tesla destination chargers.
Check Sun county charges as well.
Not knowing where you are travelling 2000km, can only give general suggestions.
Some of us offer our home charges for out of town travellers.
IKEA stores have free chargers as well.
Tesla Service or sales stores in emergency may accommodate If requested.
Lastly in my part of the province PEEVEE Mart have free chargers
If your travel involves a hotel stay always check if they have a functional Tesla compatible chargers and tell them to reserve it for you.
Always carry your plugs and the charging kit that came with your tesla.
Beware of excessive consumption in winter, maintain a good buffer.
Good luck and safe travels.
 
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Thanks, this is really good advises, but I had to cancel my trip I drove about 800km and decided not to travel to Halifax as I planned. Very disappointed with battery estimator. While I was passing Toronto on 401, message keep coming up drive 85km/h if you want to make to your next charger. My travel distance was 240km and when I started my battery had 340, I barely made it with 20km left. Meanwhile I had to drive in range mode, 100km -90km/h and I had to turn off climate when I was uncertain if I make it!
 
My travel distance was 240km and when I started my battery had 340, I barely made it with 20km left. Meanwhile I had to drive in range mode, 100km -90km/h and I had to turn off climate when I was uncertain if I make it!
What part of this is unexpected? 340 would be your "rated range", right? Rated range is an average distance under ideal conditions. The cold weather in Ontario lately is NOT an ideal condition.
 
Yeah, right! Here in Montreal, we had a predicted -39! Where were you traveling from? Us, when we do the 401 in winter, we stop at every single Supercharger on the way.
 
As it stands, it’s difficult to make it out here to Halifax. For road trips, you’re currently very limited as there are currently only two DCFC in the province, both under the FLO network. Hopefully, we’ll be getting 8 more DCFC plus a Tesla supercharger this year. NB has much better coverage.
 
As it stands, it’s difficult to make it out here to Halifax. For road trips, you’re currently very limited as there are currently only two DCFC in the province, both under the FLO network.
Where's the second one the Superstore on Barrington? The "fast charger" near Truro had been running at L2 speeds, and is currently not working at all. Those are the only ones I know of.
 
rypalmer
If you ask me, my rated range would be base on current weather conditions, and not some kind of summer rolling of the hill range, it will always be off, but not a lot.

For example when I got in the car at niagara falls yesterday it was ~-18C , so it should have adjusted somewhat correctly ( assuming min or average climate temperature). This way I could plan accordingly, but now I realized I need to do all the calculation FOR car :)
That's not what rated range is for. Use battery % instead in conjunction with your trip energy graph if you can't reconcile this.
 
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