Lakewood, CO - free Chargepoint charger

[Barry]

A friend of mine pointed out to me a recently installed 6.6 KW Chargepoint charger in the West parking garage (by Whole Foods) in Belmar. There are 2 ports and it's free.

 

[tvuolo]

I might have to swing by and try it out. I've never charged in the wild, and would like to test my J1772 to Roadster adapter.

 

[Armadillos]

Red Rocks also has 2 free Chargepoint chargers, but the are out of service at this moment.

 

[Barry]

Just for the heck of it, I tried the charger referenced in my original post. It gave me an opportunity to try my Chargepoint card and J1772 adapter, both of which I'd never used. They worked fine, after the realization that there was no button on the charger to open my charge port door, and I had to open it from the screen.:smile: Charge screen indicated 198V at 30A for 19 MPH. Guess it's originating from a 3 phase circuit and must be a long run with that much voltage drop at 30A. But it's free :smile:

From what I was told, Whole Foods is installing charging stations at their stores all across the country. I don't quite understand their intent, as at that charge rate, it doesn't accomplish much for anyone not running on "fumes."

 

[TexasEV]

Just for the heck of it, I tried the charger referenced in my original post. It gave me an opportunity to try my Chargepoint card and J1772 adapter, both of which I'd never used. They worked fine, after the realization that there was no button on the charger to open my charge port door, and I had to open it from the screen.:smile: Charge screen indicated 198V at 30A for 19 MPH. Guess it's originating from a 3 phase circuit and must be a long run with that much voltage drop at 30A. But it's free :smile:

From what I was told, Whole Foods is installing charging stations at their stores all across the country. I don't quite understand their intent, as at that charge rate, it doesn't accomplish much for anyone not running on "fumes."

They're not intended for Teslas, they're intended for short range EVs to get back home after their grocery shopping. With a Tesla you don't have to know or care where the J1772s are in your own city.

 

[glenhurst]

They're not intended for Teslas, they're intended for short range EVs to get back home after their grocery shopping. With a Tesla you don't have to know or care where the J1772s are in your own city.

I wonder if this is a dead-end strategy. In a couple of years when the Model 3 and the Chevy Bolt come out, Nissan will have to lower the price of the Leaf and/or increase its range. I assume they'll do a bit of both. With most new EVs thus having at least a 200 mile range, short term chargers like those that WF is installing will become white elephants I suspect. But I don't know if the people within WF who are making the decisions about chargers realize that.

 

[Barry]

They're not intended for Teslas, they're intended for short range EVs to get back home after their grocery shopping. With a Tesla you don't have to know or care where the J1772s are in your own city.

That makes a lot of sense.

While I only charged for a few minutes, I did have a brief visit from a BMW owner who had just pulled into a nearby spot. He asked some of the usual questions and said he's waiting for the Model 3.