Timed charging at shopping centers? How you know if its a good deal?

[JetFalcon]

How do you know if you're getting a good deal at a shopping center EV charger if you're being charged for time? You only know if it's a good deal if it's $1 for a full charge, but if you get nearly nothing, it could be a bad deal. End of the day, the shopping center EV charging better be same or cheaper than a Tesla supercharger rate of 24 cents kwh on non prime time.

But how will you know how much you're paying per kwh if its charged by time? I guess it can be slow all it wants, but all I care is what I receive for what I pay.

At Irvine Spectrum it says $1 and only 4 hours. But I don't know how many kwh I receive per $1 per hour.

Parking & Transportation | Irvine Spectrum Center

Irvine Spectrum Center offers complimentary self-parking in open-air parking lots and parking decks, valet service, and is close to public transportation provided by Amtrak and Metro Link.

www.irvinespectrumcenter.com

Irvine Spectrum Center (3) | Irvine, CA | EV Station

(5) chargers located on the 1st floor of the parking garage; enter across from Cheesecake Factory, straight ahead in back corner. These are ChargePoint chargers, not the outdoor GE WattStation chargers on the other side of the mall.

www.plugshare.com

I just wanna be aware of the cost of charging if I must do it outside of home.

 

[RTPEV]

Most of the charging stations of the type you mentioned are level 2, meaning you are probably going to get 6-7 kW charge speed.

For example, if you look at the Plugshare entry you listed, it states that the charger is 6.6kW (Plugshare isn't always correct, but at L2 speeds, it's usually close enough. That means that in one hour, you'll receive 6.6kWh of energy. For $1, that is $0.15/kWh.

Here's the thing though: at pay public chargers, you are not just paying for electricity. You are paying for convenience, and you are also paying for the charger to not be hogged by vehicles that don't really need the charge but will plug in anyway because it's free and they are looking to save $5 that month on their electricity bill.

Are some charging stations a ripoff? Absolutely. There certainly are some that specifically provide a disincentive for people to use them. Fastchargers at dealerships for example, and in other cases charging stations that were provided for the benefit of the host site, but the site host doesn't really understand that the cost of electricity is nowhere near the cost of gas and arbitrarily chose a high cost. And sometimes there's actually a reasonable reason. In my area there are chargers that offer a very attractive parking location, and they do charge a fair rate, at least at first. But after 4 hours they hike the rate to something truly ridiculous to provide an incentive for you to not hog the charging station all day.

 

[DblOSmith]

Are some charging stations a ripoff? Absolutely. There certainly are some that specifically provide a disincentive for people to use them.

I would love for someone to start a thread on the biggest charging ripoff locations and why.

Separate point, is there a spreadsheet available on supercharger rates? I know some go by time, some by kW.

 

[RTPEV]

I would love for someone to start a thread on the biggest charging ripoff locations and why.

This will change over time, but I think the biggest candidates are the hundreds of car dealerships (many VW, but other brands as well) that have recently installed 24kW ChargePoint units and have set outrageous fees for them (considering they offer only about 2-3X what you can get from a destination charger). Whether it's because they want to disincentivize their use, or they just don't understand the cost of electricity, I don't know, although I'm not totally against the idea of them not wanting to provide this service (rather, they are being forced to by the auto maker they are aligned with). I get that when the only fast charging EVs on the roads were LEAFs and Teslas, and only Tesla was stepping up to build a fastcharging network, that it was a reasonable move for Nissan dealers to (be forced to) install fastchargers to support the LEAF, but we are now beyond that. Single 24kW charging stations at dealership lots that are not open 24 hours a day and are frequently broken anyway are not helping promote EVs or EV road trips now that ElectrifyAmerica, EVgo and ChargePoint are starting to have decent enough networks.

Separate point, is there a spreadsheet available on supercharger rates? I know some go by time, some by kW.

Yes, have a look at this thread: Supercharger Pricing Map?

and this post specifically: Supercharger Pricing Map?