Some 3rd Party Chargers are Insanely Expensive

[Wooloomooloo]

I don't have my Model 3 yet but I've been planning where and how I'd charge my car as I don't own a house, I own an apartment in Brooklyn, NY.

I noticed the nearest destination charger (on the PLugShare app) in on the 'Blink' network, but charges $0.49/kwh if you have a blink card, or $0.59 if you don't.

Some very quick math... I'm looking at about $30 for a full charge and let's say 270mi of range in normal conditions.

My Golf GTI (current car) would cost less than that to get the same range using premium gas.

Is this common? Do 3rd party chargers often charge much more than superchargers? Tesla (rather astonishingly) doesn't have a supercharger in Brooklyn (which as a stand alone city is the USA's 5th largest).

 

[glide]

Is this common? Do 3rd party chargers often charge much more than superchargers?

Yes.

 

[Kuhz]

Those are not considered destination chargers. A destination charger is a Tesla HPWC installed at destination locations such as hotels, wineries, malls, restaurants etc. basically places you would spend at least a few hours. I believe Tesla does not allow these establishments to collect payment for charging if you use the establishment’s services. These ChargePoint and other companies are just the run of the mill for profit EV chargers and are usually much more expensive than charging at home or a supercharger.

 

[GWord]

The rates vary widely. In a number of US cities, including Brooklyn, there are a fair number of free ones (although in bigger cities you might have to pay for a parking garage in order to access some). Blink tends to be the worst in terms of pricing, in my opinion. Just FYI, there is a supercharger on N. 12th Street over by McCarren Park.

If you were looking at the Blink charger over by Ikea, there are two free Chargepoint stations 2 miles away at the Whole Foods. Also, there is an EVgo station at Walgreens down by Prospect Park that has L2 charging at $0.21/h as well as high power charging (once the Model 3 can accept the CHAdeMO adapter).

 

[gavine]

Does your apartment complex have a parking lot or garage? If so, maybe they would be willing to install a charger with reasonable fees.

 

[kavyboy]

Blink chargers being expensive isn't really an issue since they're usually broken anyway.

 

[Galve2000]

This has been a known issue and the bane of my existence for a long long time. It's like a chicken and egg problem. The 3rd party chargers are so expensive to use, that no one uses them unless it is an extreme emergency. Then the station owners/operators remove them b/c they assume there is no use for them.

back in 2012-2013 I "splurged" on electrons b/c I loved how my Chevy Volt drove on electrons. but after a year or two it got EXPENSIVE. by the 3rd year of my Volt lease I was driving almost exclusively on gas

Tesla has helped in a big way with the 240 V Destination Chargers.

Tesla destination chargers are "free" but often come withe exorbitant parking rates in the NYC, Boston, and DC, (and I could probably safely add Chicago) metro areas in order to access these chargers.

how far are you form Williamsburg / Greenpoint? There are "urban" SuperChargers at the William Vale Hotel. Telsas get 1 hr of parking for $5 -- even on "event" nights -- (where regular cars pay $30 just to drive the car into the garage). at 72kW you can get roughly half your battery charged from 0. and there is not much taper, if any. it is the best deal in town IMNSHO

of course with a Model 3 you will pay for the electricity you consume but IMO the NY State rates Tesla is charging are reasonable, even after you factor the recent price increase from a few months ago. (the rate is $0.24/kWh as of this writing) Personally, I would GLADLY pay up to $0.35/kWh to use a ChargePoint/Bink etc etc charger. (At home, if I could drop an extension cord from my apartment on the 32nd floor of my building to the street, I would pay roughly $0.17/kWh) So I would gladly pay double to drive on electrons. But I balk at the insane $0.49/kWh. Sorry. we all have limits. Tesla's current $0.24/kWh is a small mark up to discourage SCer hogging for those who can charge at home. and it is 1/2 of what ChargePoint, Bink, and the rest are charging in the NYC metro area!!

 

[Uncle Paul]

Tesla initially constructed Superchargers along major freeways to allow long distance travelers a place to charge up along the way.

Now they are rolling out Superchargers in congested Urban areas, such as Brooklyn, where owners can quickly, inexpensively and conveniently charge up their cars.

Not all cities have these yet, but they are being constructed at a rapid pace.

Imaging that Brooklyn is included in their plans as the new Model 3 is going to be very popular.

Idea is that you can pull into an Urban charger and grab a cup of coffee or shop a little while you charge your car.

 

[azred]

Hopefully a moderator will alter the misleading title of the thread.

I seldom use third party chargers partially because cost ranges from $0 to a lot, but mostly because of the chances of finding broken or ICE’d equipment.

 

[tivoboy]

Blink network chargers are notoriously expensive. Easily 2-3x other network charging costs. I t( ink it’s vecause they often will give $$ back to the location. They make it into a business model for some locations so they have to charge more.

Tesla destination chargers I find can go from free for guests or patrons to only for guests or patrons to sure you can use it for a while if nobody needs it to some nominal hourly fee. Like 1.5-3$ an hour. Some show up on the in vehicle maps and some I find in the chargepoint app. Notably chargepoint locations also show up in the in vehicle map but one has to search for chargepoint. It doesn’t just show up when looking for charging locations.

 

[Lloyd]

Consider yourself lucky ! PG&E peak event day pricing is now $.858 per kWh in California!

 

[ItsNotAboutTheMoney]

Those are not considered destination chargers. A destination charger is a Tesla HPWC installed at destination locations such as hotels, wineries, malls, restaurants etc. basically places you would spend at least a few hours. I believe Tesla does not allow these establishments to collect payment for charging if you use the establishment’s services. These ChargePoint and other companies are just the run of the mill for profit EV chargers and are usually much more expensive than charging at home or a supercharger.

Tesla does not place any conditions on charging customers for use of an HPWC. I belive that in fact they will suggest what fee will cover the power costs.

 

[Twiglett]

Tesla does not place any conditions on charging customers for use of an HPWC. I belive that in fact they will suggest what fee will cover the power costs.

That may be, but a real “Destination Charger” or one that shows up on Tesla’s charger map is usually free for patrons/customers.
The OP is calling ALL chargers destination chargers when most aren’t even Tesla plugs.
@Wooloomooloo check out PlugShare.com
Then set the filters to exclude payment required, that should give you a better idea what your options are.

 

[Wooloomooloo]

The rates vary widely. In a number of US cities, including Brooklyn, there are a fair number of free ones (although in bigger cities you might have to pay for a parking garage in order to access some). Blink tends to be the worst in terms of pricing, in my opinion. Just FYI, there is a supercharger on N. 12th Street over by McCarren Park.

If you were looking at the Blink charger over by Ikea, there are two free Chargepoint stations 2 miles away at the Whole Foods. Also, there is an EVgo station at Walgreens down by Prospect Park that has L2 charging at $0.21/h as well as high power charging (once the Model 3 can accept the CHAdeMO adapter).

Thanks for the reply and info. Yes I live in Red Hook (very convenient for the Tesla showroom!) and I was referring to the Blink charger at IKEA which could have been convenient, but I definitely won’t be goin there.

The Supercharger at N12th St looks like it’s a valet-parking location, but I might be wrong. What’s would you typically tip in this situation (despite 13 years in the US, I still struggle to know how much to tip in such situations!)

I knew about Whole Foods, I shop there occasionally. Usually those spaces occupied, not always by an EV. EVgo sounds promising, thanks for that tip.

 

[Wooloomooloo]

Hopefully a moderator will alter the misleading title of the thread.

The forum doesn’t seem to allow for editing of posts, let alone post titles, otherwise I’d change it to 3rd party. I am still learning the EV world language.

 

[tivoboy]

Consider yourself lucky ! PG&E peak event day pricing is now $.858 per kWh in California!

Well, now granted isn't that during only one of those peak smart days, of which there are only 15 days a year? My rates top out at .46 at home (tiered not time of day rates) but start at .12. then go to .28, then .46. and .46 is only once I have crested I think 600kwh a month or 300kwh per 15 day period.

As the CA supercharger rates at TSC are always .26 regardless, anyone in a tiered or peak rate days situation should try and supercharge when needed, vs. charging at home.

i have an alert setup for if/when I go from tier 2 to tier 3, so after that and based on day or my monthly billing, I'll just supercharge if needed.

 

[ohmman]

Mod note: amended title.

 

[Wooloomooloo]

Mod note: amended title.

Thank you.

 

[GWord]

Thanks for the reply and info. Yes I live in Red Hook (very convenient for the Tesla showroom!) and I was referring to the Blink charger at IKEA which could have been convenient, but I definitely won’t be goin there.

The Supercharger at N12th St looks like it’s a valet-parking location, but I might be wrong. What’s would you typically tip in this situation (despite 13 years in the US, I still struggle to know how much to tip in such situations!)

I knew about Whole Foods, I shop there occasionally. Usually those spaces occupied, not always by an EV. EVgo sounds promising, thanks for that tip.

Yeah, I figured the Whole Foods would probably be like that. The chargers there seem to be in demand no matter where you are in the country.

I see what you are talking about on the Supercharger. That's wild; I have never seen a setup like that. Seems like a good racket to be in if you are in the valet business! I'd probably tip a few dollars although I loathe to hand my car over to a valet and I avoid it as much as possible.

 

[cmaster]

I don't think it's expensive relative to gas cars. I can plan to stop between a supercharger and a DC Chademo fast charge station. It still turns out to be cheaper.