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Home chargers offered up to EV travelers
- Thread starter Cooksomerice
- Start date
Dstrohl
Member
To me, it of course depends on the situation:
For a stranger (like plugshare), I would think that bringing a small gift would be the best, or at least offering to pay 5-10 bucks. Just showing up and "expecting" to use the power seems pretty cheeky and possibly a bit rude. Even though the electricity is not much, the fact that the person is taking the time to help makes me feel like I should at least offer something in thanks.
For a family or friend, I would explain the normal / expected cost of charging and offer to reimburse if they wanted. (at least until a pattern and expectations had been set) Again, the cost is low, but as someone else said, they dont necessarily know that.
Now, if I was visiting a friend with a EV and they offered their charger up front, I would probably not feel like I had to pay anything (though I might ask if they wanted a few bucks, depending on how things came across).
For a stranger (like plugshare), I would think that bringing a small gift would be the best, or at least offering to pay 5-10 bucks. Just showing up and "expecting" to use the power seems pretty cheeky and possibly a bit rude. Even though the electricity is not much, the fact that the person is taking the time to help makes me feel like I should at least offer something in thanks.
For a family or friend, I would explain the normal / expected cost of charging and offer to reimburse if they wanted. (at least until a pattern and expectations had been set) Again, the cost is low, but as someone else said, they dont necessarily know that.
Now, if I was visiting a friend with a EV and they offered their charger up front, I would probably not feel like I had to pay anything (though I might ask if they wanted a few bucks, depending on how things came across).
DMC-Orangeville
Audi eTron & John Deere 5100E
I have an HPWC and a NEMA 14-50 on Plugshare at my farm. The farm is in an area where there are few charging options between Toronto and a popular tourist area (Georgian Bay). Many Smart Cars and I3's have been by, and I get a lot of S60's, especially in winter. They can sit and watch the horses in a heated lounge - free coffee, while charging. No one has ever offered to pay me, and I wouldn't accept it. Some folks will leave a box of cookies, or other goodies....which is a nice gesture....and I'll eat them.
I forgot to add the experiences about a couple of other compensation I got. When I had a few people come to use my 14-50 outlet, it was still a pretty adventurous thing, and I was excited to meet other Tesla travelers. So I would take a little time to come home from work to meet them, and we would go out for lunch or beers or something to talk, and they would cover the bill for the food and drinks as a thank you.
We still have a bottle of whisky that one PlugShare user left after charging at our house, located in the Southern California mountain resort area. Someone else left a bottle of wine, which we passed along to another PlugShare host when we charged at their place. Others have left thank-you cards or cash. Still others merely said "thank you", or didn't communicate at all. It's all good, as we're happy to see people using their EVs for trips to the mountains. Ideally, though, we appreciate when users leave notes or communicate somehow.
I put my home 14-50 on PlugShare before I had a Tesla when the maps put me in the middle of a charging desert for folks who needed that little bit extra to get to their tourist destination. I made it accessible when I'm not home with an internet door opener. Before I had my own car it was my treat just to see a Tesla and talk to owners. A few people took advantage of it before they were more charging options around here. Now with a supercharger 45 minutes away and several area destination chargers I haven't seen any visitors using my upgraded 100a HWPC.
WannabeOwner
Well-Known Member
That's a whole new concept - re-gifting EV charging favors. We could have a lot of fun with this...
DMC-Orangeville
Audi eTron & John Deere 5100E
....kinda like fruitcake at Christmas. There are only 5 fruitcakes that have ever been made. When you are given one of them, you give it away as fast as you can......
Good seasonal reference! Last time I got a fruitcake, I didn't give it away though, as at the time I was in the market for an anchor for my pontoon boat...
WannabeOwner
Well-Known Member
My Mother gave a gift to a good friend one Christmas, two years later she got it back from someone completely different!
Mind you ... she was pleased as she had bought it in the first place because she liked it
I wish one of you smart guys would come up with an "Uber" charging network. Some set price that would compensate people willing to offer up charges. It would encourage more people to share and would make me feel better about using someone else's charge.
I have my home on PS and wouldn't expect anything but I wouldn't feel right if I ever used someone else's without some sort of payment/gift.
I have my home on PS and wouldn't expect anything but I wouldn't feel right if I ever used someone else's without some sort of payment/gift.
I wouldn't be surprised if chargepoint was working on something similar with their home chargers, they already are connected and have all needed data. All is needed is 'set your price' field.
I agree that this is a great idea!
One challenge is that the majority of us have "dumb" charging stations that aren't networked. Maybe this could be overcome by requiring users to use an app to indicate when they start and stop charging at a given PlugShare location. Obviously, users would be on their honor to do so, or at least retroactively tell the app how long they charged. Then they would be billed based on the expected rate of charge (in kW), which would depend on the vehicle and charging station, as well as the current electricity rates plus a markup.
Another challenge is that a great many charging stations are inside private garages or are likely to be blocked by vehicles. But that's an existing challenge with PlugShare as it is. What the above-suggested service would do is give people a way to pay for what they use and thus give them more "guilt free" charging options.
Finally, there might be a need for some sort of commercial liability insurance coverage if people are making money from this.
How about instead of overcoming all those issues we would concentrate on convincing big gas station chains to replace one gas pump with combo DC charging station that would be charging similarly to Tesla's model (fair pricing, not oriented on making money on electricity but on the coffee and donuts in the c-store part of the station)?
I'm puzzled why it didn't take off just yet. Installing 50kW CCS/chademo station costs nothing in the great schema of what it costs to set up gas station. The electricity is there, the land is there, and you're locking customer in for 15-30 minutes at a time, not 3-5 like with gasoline.
I agree that getting more DC charging stations out there is a great thing to focus on. Just yesterday, I sort of just voted with my dollars by purchasing a Tesla CHAdeMO adapter...
That said, I still think there's a lot of merit to having a dense, distributed network of home-based charging stations available to the public; I'm a big believer in the PlugShare concept. Of course, the ideal, shared charging stations will be those that can be reached without the host having to open up their garage.
Suppose someone buys a new Tesla (or other EV) and hasn't yet gotten home charging installed. For a price, it may be very helpful if they can charge their EV somewhere close in the neighborhood, rather than waiting around for an hour to use a CHAdeMO/CCS charger at a gas station (assuming it isn't in use or blocked). Many of us would be willing to help new EV owners for a limited duration even if we only break even on costs. Further, such an arrangement could be a long term solution for some apartment dwellers, provided the charging host is able to make enough extra money to compensate for a stranger parking in their driveway on an ongoing basis.
Or suppose an EV owner is visiting family or friends in another city. Being able to charge at or near one's destination is preferable, in my experience, to having to make an extra stop (or two) at a Supercharger or CHAdeMO/CCS charger. This is especially the case during busy travel times such as long weekends when some Superchargers may have lines.
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