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Free public charging is going to stop soon when there are more cars using them.
A lot of stores and restaurants and businesses see them as advertising costs. It costs a buck or two a day to have them used, so it's not like it costs much for each person using them. If a patron at a restaurant uses one while they eat, the cost of the electricity used is about 30 cents. Easily absorbed into the cost of the food so that the patron doesn't notice that they've really paid 30 cents for a free charge for 2 hours. Win-win for all involved.
And a lot of municipal chargers will remain free as a service. Again, look at how many are out there on plugshare in your area. It's a LOT.
A lot of stores and restaurants and businesses see them as advertising costs. It costs a buck or two a day to have them used, so it's not like it costs much for each person using them. If a patron at a restaurant uses one while they eat, the cost of the electricity used is about 30 cents. Easily absorbed into the cost of the food so that the patron doesn't notice that they've really paid 30 cents for a free charge for 2 hours. Win-win for all involved.
And a lot of municipal chargers will remain free as a service. Again, look at how many are out there on plugshare in your area. It's a LOT.
Question really is, does that scale? Adding 2 or 3 chargers near the entrance of a business isn't that costly, dozens though spread out through the lot is another story.
Question really is, does that scale? Adding 2 or 3 chargers near the entrance of a business isn't that costly, dozens though spread out through the lot is another story.
Sure over time, especially if they get reimbursed by the power companies for the installations. it's already happening all over.
What we really need is a push to get apartments and condos to start installing them as part of an incentive to rent from them. You don't need charging stations out and about if you have them at home...
Sure over time, especially if they get reimbursed by the power companies for the installations. it's already happening all over.
What we really need is a push to get apartments and condos to start installing them as part of an incentive to rent from them. You don't need charging stations out and about if you have them at home...
The easy solution would be to adopt induction charging where EVs would just need to park in designated spots and not hassle with plugs and cords. Charging speeds would probably be pretty slow, but parking your car overnight while you sleep, while you sit for meal, movie, or long-term park at office park/airport should be plenty. Fast charging (level 3) is really only essential for professional livery drivers or while road-tripping.
As for the OP. PHEV typically have 3.3kW on-board chargers because it saves on manufacturing costs and design, and the battery packs are relatively small. PHEV typically offer 10-40mi of electric range and considers utilizing the ICE engine to work in hybrid mode for optimization. It is thought that 4hrs to fully charge a battery is ideal from a manufacturing standpoint. 3.3kW is rather small considering a Tesla Model 3 LR is able to charge up to 250kW/hr. The representative on the phone was giving very vague information, though I would not recommend paying for PHEV charging. You are typically charging by time duration and charging at 3.3kW is too slow for the math to make sense (or cents).
However, if you want to reduce the need for fossil fuel, pollute less, support the electric infrastructure, and as long as no one else NEEDS to charge their EV, then go for it. 3 gripes from EV owners:
1) PHEV that take too damn long to charge hogging a charging station.
2) PHEV that are charging while BEVs need to charge. PHEV can always run on gasoline, BEV solely rely on electricity.
3) Any car taking up an EV charging stall while not charging.
As for the OP. PHEV typically have 3.3kW on-board chargers because it saves on manufacturing costs and design, and the battery packs are relatively small. PHEV typically offer 10-40mi of electric range and considers utilizing the ICE engine to work in hybrid mode for optimization. It is thought that 4hrs to fully charge a battery is ideal from a manufacturing standpoint. 3.3kW is rather small considering a Tesla Model 3 LR is able to charge up to 250kW/hr. The representative on the phone was giving very vague information, though I would not recommend paying for PHEV charging. You are typically charging by time duration and charging at 3.3kW is too slow for the math to make sense (or cents).
However, if you want to reduce the need for fossil fuel, pollute less, support the electric infrastructure, and as long as no one else NEEDS to charge their EV, then go for it. 3 gripes from EV owners:
1) PHEV that take too damn long to charge hogging a charging station.
2) PHEV that are charging while BEVs need to charge. PHEV can always run on gasoline, BEV solely rely on electricity.
3) Any car taking up an EV charging stall while not charging.
Pardon my ignorance about PHEV technology, but why would you even need to plug one in away from your own garage? You have a "charger" incorporated right in to the vehicle. I thought that was the point of being a hybrid. I can certainly see why EV drivers could get a bit miffed at some PHEV hogging a charging station.
Pardon my ignorance about PHEV technology, but why would you even need to plug one in away from your own garage? You have a "charger" incorporated right in to the vehicle. I thought that was the point of being a hybrid. I can certainly see why EV drivers could get a bit miffed at some PHEV hogging a charging station.
You don't NEED to, but a lot of PHEV drivers, especially Volts and Claritys, tend to take great pride in how far they've driven never using the gas generator. so you often see them tend to use the L2 chargers out and about to keep from having to use the gas. I tend not to, as even on L2, the Volt doesn't charge very fast, so you don't get much back out of it, especially if you're just at the grocery store and only get in 15-20 minutes of charge (which is like 3-4 miles, big deal).
Pardon my ignorance about PHEV technology, but why would you even need to plug one in away from your own garage? You have a "charger" incorporated right in to the vehicle. I thought that was the point of being a hybrid. I can certainly see why EV drivers could get a bit miffed at some PHEV hogging a charging station.
because you are supposed to save money by charging hybrid battery off electricity and then driving whatever range you can on that charge.
What does make sense when you charge overnight at home, then you pay very little for those miles driven.
Not in case of my poster - he was offered to pay 40c a mile at a quick charger.
I had 2 hybrids and, to be honest, entire plug in thing is a gimmick to me. You have a vehicle that is continuously recharging its traction battery as you drive. What else do you need?
And I do understand that any hybrid will beat my 98 Grand Marquis mpg, I am not questioning that. But it was very ironic to read that proud owner of the latest and the greatest in hybrid technology (to the tune of around $35K price tag) will pay more per mile than proud owner of $1500 civil version of cop car.
I could almost read his thoughts - WDF did I even buy it? To be ripped off at charging station?
There are tens of thousands of free chargers across the country (they are not rare), and an app like Plugshare shows where they all are: https://www.plugshare.com/
All those chargers on this map are free? It's unclear from the map legend...
It seems to be a map of charge stations around the world. No word about them being free...
"PlugShare is a powerful mobile application and online tool that allows electric car owners to locate and optimize the use of EV charging stations. First of all, it's the most comprehensive and up-to-date database of electric vehicle charging stations in North America, Europe, and Asia." https://www.plugincars.com/how-to-us...are-guide.html
I KNOW that the ones listed in my city aren't free...
You can filter free/paid on plugshare under the filter options.
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