PlugShare - EV Charging Site with Donations Requested

[swaltner]

Should a publicly available charging station that has donations requested to cover electricity costs be listed on PlugShare as "Payment Required" or not? I lean toward "not" since it not required, but simply requested. A google for "plug share donation requested" comes up with examples of both options. Curious what the general feel is for that.

Maybe this is something to request Plugshare implement - Payment Required vs Payment Requested, not that they'd likely implement it any time soon, since there are other longstanding feature requests that haven't been implemented.

 

[David99]

Donation != 'required'. I don't know if it's worth a separate category. If I really need a charge I will pay, so I set filter to all sites. If I just look for an opportunity I might look for free ones only. If I miss a donation site that way, no harm done.

 

[MarcoRP]

If you’re offering a free charge, and people can donate, I’d say list it as a free charge, as people tend to visit free chargers more than paid chargers, when they can find one. You should put the donation box (if there is one) right next to the charger to “guilt” people into donating a buck or two for the service, but they’re not forced to.

Can you post the PlugShare listing?

 

[Aikidoka]

If it is free with a donation requested, it's free. If it is marked as free with a donation required it is false labeling. A mandatory donation is a fee.

 

[swaltner]

Thanks for the input so far.

I'll post the actual link once the site goes live in the next couple days. They are waiting on the electric utility to approve the solar panels that are part of the same installation.

 

[Jeepxj]

Would be nice if plugshare let you do donations through them to the owner of the charger. someone should request the feature. they can API out the money exchange itself.

 

[MarcoRP]

Would be nice if plugshare let you do donations through them to the owner of the charger. someone should request the feature. they can API out the money exchange itself.

PlugShare only uses the “Pay with PlugShare” with major charging companies, like SemaConnect or Recargo. I doubt they will start something like that just for donations. I’ve asked the head of data integrity about this and he told me the following: “Well donations/tips are not an obligation. Therefore it should be listed as free. But I'll share this with the team, but chances are we probably won't add another category. That can probably be added under description.” As I said before, a donation box for change and bills is probably your best option for now before we go completely cashless. Then, it’ll be a different story.

 

[swaltner]

Wow, split 50/50 on the results. I guess that’s why you find stations listed both ways on PlugShare.

As requested, here is the location that I created. It is a pair of 240V/48A OpenEVSE stations mounted on a 52.5 kW solar carport. There is a sign by the stations with a QR code and a Donations Requested message.

Bethel College
300 E 27th St
North Newton, KS 67117
PlugShare - Find Electric Vehicle Charging Locations Near You

 

[MarcoRP]

Wow, split 50/50 on the results. I guess that’s why you find stations listed both ways on PlugShare.

As requested, here is the location that I created. It is a pair of 240V/48A OpenEVSE stations mounted on a 52.5 kW solar carport. There is a sign by the stations with a QR code and a Donations Requested message.

Bethel College
300 E 27th St
North Newton, KS 67117
PlugShare - Find Electric Vehicle Charging Locations Near You

That’s an amazing setup. Congratulations!

 

[swaltner]

Interesting, someone came in and moved the “donations requested” message from the description to the text box on the Cost and Pricing field. On the web site, that text box isn’t shown unless the payment required option is enabled. On the iOS app, it’s available, but not obvious that you can enter text without the toggle set to on. This cleanup was likely someone from PlugShare dealing with the noise that you get with crowd-sourced data. I noticed a couple minor edits after I added the site a couple days ago.