EV charging at the Mall

[Carnos Jax]

AllGold wrote:
If you don’t have charging ability at home or at work then you probably don’t want an EV.

^^^this

[special]

Speedy wrote:
special, I like how easily you are entertained while at the mall. My wife drags me along and I about die every time she mentions she just wants to stop for a few minutes at the show store along the way. Worse is that she wants my opinion on the shoes. I’ve tried every reply I could think of to get her to just buy what she wants to no avail so that I could sit in the food court observing all the young females.

This was unexpected, we were supposed to do something together but I had to bail out for health reason't I won't go into here, so I had to wait about 1 hour for wife and son. besides checking news, what else was I supposed to do? If I knew before I could have brought a book. The drive home was 20 min and back 20 min, not worth it. Better improvise and this was quite entertaining to talk to the Polestar kid and watch how people deal with the energy vending machines.

[pqrst]

The ev charging situation is a concern for me as I think about a new car in 18 months. My apt complex has no ev charging and the management has enough problems with infrastructure and parking. So not likely to made available anytime soon. The streets around my area are pretty crowded at night, so I don’t think ev ports will go in there. The nearest shopping mall ports are a mile away and I think they are only level 2. And my work locations shifts every couple of months. And the last few had only one or two ev ports. No designed parking. I am looking at a phev as opposed to a pure ev. Last summer, power was out beccause of wildfire risk to power lines. So again pure ev is probably out.

[NewtonMP2100]

....like fer sure.....totally......

[AllGold]

wurm wrote:
Here's a dumb question from a driver who considered an EV 4 years ago but ended up with an IC.

Short of using an app or other onboard program, how does one know when seeing a charging station whether it's free or not? Or whether your particular vehicle can use it regardless of cost? Gas is gas and gas pumps are all the same, but is there some color-coding or other clear way of knowing what kind of charger one can use? Thanks.

Other than Tesla-branded chargers, there's no way to know without either an app or getting out and looking for yourself.

As for "Gas is gas and gas pumps are all the same." True, but none of them are free. :wink:

[special]

True, but none of them are free.


is kWh Free?

[AllGold]

special wrote:
True, but none of them are free.


is kWh Free?

AllGold wrote:
Within a few miles of my (suburban) home, there are a couple dozen non-Tesla public chargers. Most are free, by the way.

[kj]

Carnos Jax wrote:
[quote=AllGold]
If you don’t have charging ability at home or at work then you probably don’t want an EV.

^^^this
I also agree, unless you like being resourceful. I’ve been driving EVs since before the pandemic and have only charged somewhere other than home a few times. Mostly at Hotels, a couple at Superchargers, and several times just grabbed a few percent off an outlet that presented itself. I don’t mind being resourceful for the relatively few charges that occur outside home. There are surprisingly many options, but you have to be more savvy than with gas.

[Robert M]

Speedy,

That's incredibly easy to say but, for many people, it isn't an option. You need to live in the real world where people don't necessarily have the luxury of charging an EV at home or at an office. I very fortunate. I can install the charging station in my warehouse since I own the company. Other people aren't so lucky.

Like pqrst, the building where I reside lacks the infrastructure for electric vehicle charging solutions without a significant expense and agita. Many other issues are much higher priority and must be taken care of before charging solutions become a consideration, let alone a reality. Offering charging stations for our residents isn't going to happen anytime soon. Heck, I;'d be astonished if the building installs charging solutions for residents anytime in the near future. More likely, my family will be long gone from the building by the time charging solutions are in place.

Robert


"Simple. Charge at work and you’ll be fine unless you drive 300+ miles a day in which case take an ICE vehicle. I suppose you let the shop that does your maintenance come pick up and drop off your vehicle at your office thus not costing you time, only money; money that you wouldn’t spend if you drove an EV."

[flareslow]

How do these Supercharger stations guard against the copper thieves? Those are relatively large cables from the "pump" to the vehicle. Are the locations highly trafficked such that any theft is likely to be noticed and reported?