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Plug-In electric car drivers in several regions have enjoyed free public charging at many locations. But lately, some businesses that offer charge stations have started to require payment by credit card.
All of these charging stations were installed with Federal grant funding, so the business owners did not pay anything for what is presumably a way to attract plug-in drivers to their premises.
One example: Walgreen’s drugstore chain has Coulomb ChargePoint stations at many of its California stores. Those stations now cost $2.00 an hour for charging, as do similar Coulomb stations at the Vacaville Outlet Mall.
But because the highest-volume electric vehicles have only 3.3 kW/hour onboard chargers, their owners pay $2 for (at most) 3.3 kilowatt-hours of energy.
The low-volume 2012 Ford Focus Electric and the California-only 2012 Coda Sedan can recharge at 6.6 kW, meaning they can add up to twice as much electric range for that same $2 fee.
This seems like a somewhat inequitable pricing system, whatever the cost. Imagine buying gasoline by the minute, regardless of whether you could pump it in the conventional way or had to add it through a soda straw.
Perhaps with the higher-capacity 6.6-kW inverter coming in next year’s 2013 Leaf, and the 10-kW inverter in the new 2012 Tesla Model S, a rate of $2.00 an hour might be more reasonable.
But for today's Nissan Leaf, Chevrolet Volt, and Mitsubishi i, all limited to 3.3 kW per hour, it translates to a very high price compared to overnight home charging.
“If someone charges at $2 an hour at 3.3 kilowatts, that's 60 cents per kilowatt-hour, which is very expensive," notes Jeff Paul, an energy specialist with the Sacramento Metropolitan Utility District.
He called that rate "paying full price," comparing it to "buying gas for a car that gets 28 mpg.”
Home electric rates vary widely by location and time, but generally run from 3 cents to 25 cents per kilowatt-hour. A Nissan Leaf owner may thus pay as much as 20 times the home-charging rate when recharging at Walgreen's.
Two-dollar-an-hour charging "means paying the same as the driver of a 24-mpg [gasoline] vehicle," notes Mark Williams, an air pollution specialist with the California Air Resources Board (CARB) during an internet discussion of the new fees, and "some folks have said that's OK."
"The difference is that we should also be amortizing the cost of a replacement battery into our fuel costs. If a replacement battery costs $10,000 after 100,000 miles, then our per-mile cost is $0.10 and the 12 miles I can charge in an hour has a built-in replacement cost of $1.20."
"So in reality, we're paying $3.20/hour," Williams concludes, "which is the same as the driver of a 15-mpg [gasoline] vehicle.”
Last week, Sacramento’s municipal parking authority announced it will install 28 Level 2 charging stations in parking ramps around the city center, and they will be free to use. As a further incentive to use emission-free vehicles, Sacramento offers free parking passes to those drivers for some city parking garages as well.
So, what is the reasonable cost for using a charging station at a business setting?
And is it reasonable to use pricing mechanisms to prod electric-car owners to recharge at night, when the electric grid has far more spare capacity than it may on a hot, smoggy, summer afternoon?
Leave us your thoughts in the Comments below.
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George is spot on with the amortization of the battery cost. If you own your battery and only charge at home, you are deluding yourself if you think the cost per mile is the cost of the kWh you put in.
And I'm able to use any charge spot in Israel for no additional fee and with nothing more than a wave of my key fob to open a charge port.
Also note: when Better Place quick charges batteries at the switch station they externally cool them first and keep them chilled externally while charging. Something no owner of an in-situ battery can do with regular equipment.
So the depreciation is less for BP than it would be for me without their equipment. Also note: they have bulk selling power when end of useful life is reached, something no individual owner will have.
Whether a battery is a appreciating or depreciating asset, it will be so for the person renting it or the person buying it, even if the person buying it is a corporate entity planning to rent it. The person buying it will suffer the loss of depreciation and adjust the rental accordingly. Also, the person (or corporation) clearly intends to make a profit which comes at the expense of the renter.
Please go rent some furniture (another depreciating asset) and tell me if it is cheaper than buying. Renting is now, and will always be, more expensive.
Your neighbour started renting for an extortionate $5,000 per month. He paid $60,000 per year.
After 4 years you both left. The renter paid $240,000 and you finally accepted an offer on your home of $500,000 after 6 months trying to sell it.
Which one cost more?
In Silicon Valley, CA the Stanford Shopping Center has their 2 Coulomb CT2102 EVSE set to cost $2/Hr whether using the Level-2 coupler (6kW max ability) or the Level-1 outlet (1.5kW ability).
As the piece did mention the majority of Leaf drivers only use 3kW or ~$.50/Hour of elecricity, a $2 turns away drivers from using their EVSE. Since envolking their new $2/Hour rate, those 2 EV spaces have gone unused. Are they keeping the riff-raff out?
A better and more fair rate would be $1/Hour.
{brucedp.150m.com}
I think $0.50 is reasonable price to charge by the station owners. At $1 to $2.75 (highest I have seen), a 40mpg ICE car makes more sense...
This is just another reason to get Volt instead. To hedge against "E-gouging"...
But right now owners of charging stations who charge by the kWhr
would naturally want to sell as many kWhrs as possible, thus will
suffer if slower charging vehicles show up. Thus the logic behind hourly rates. There are also the unknown costs : what's the cost of keeping his chargers working? I don't find it surprising that operators have varying ideas on what price they should charge.
That means having an electric car becomes more convenient, if slightly pricier.
Look at ATMs, for the longest time, ATM fees were regulated, so, banks only put ATMs out to serve as "Marketing leverage", when independent ATMs that could charge any price came out, suddenly every barber shop, convenience store and bar had an ATM. Sure the prices were highway robbery, but if you desperately needed $100, you could get it anywhere. Then the market saturated, usage fell, fees came down and it got into an equilibrated market.
Same with Pay Phones, when they were a regulated business,
until the business collapsed with cell phones.
(the local power company) has installed a number of charg3ers in the area. Those chargers can charge.
It is possible they'd charge a small micro fee from me for using a roaming spot but it's hard to see I would do this unless it was essential to cut out a free battery switch on a certain route.
If what the owner of the charger needs to charge to make it worth his while is so high that it makes driving an EV no longer worth it's owner's while, that's another sign that level 2 charging is a dead end and fast charging is the future.
That helps keep demand at the switch station down so keeping the number of very expensive stations down. That's much more value than any one charge spot is worth on its own.
In other situations, the cost of collection is probably ridiculous compared to the cost of the electricity.
Better Place install their charge spots at for free: no installation or operating cost for the property owner.
However, typically retailers charge 100% above their costs, which should only translate to 20 or 30 cents/kWh, not 60.
I think it's going to be tough even for BP to make level 2 charging work economically. I mean, what are the chances of there really being a level 2 charger present at your destination in Jerusalem? Would you park a few blocks away from your actual destination for a few extra miles of range?
Seems to me people will only use level 2 if it's convenient, which means it needs to be available absolutely everywhere and that means a huge investment. I doubt the need for less battery swapping could compensate for that.
And yes, thanks to Better Place, I now will preferentially walk 800m to park somewhere with a certain charge spot: finding parking in Jerusalem is such a nightmare anyway. Now that I've found a couple of parking lots I can rely on I'm actually rather happy. Street parking might be a bit cheaper but not by much and I like the places they have chargers. It also means I can do the round trip without swapping battery which does save me time.
Jerusalem can barely cope with donkeys. Cars are a hell of a leap and I would be very happy if quite a few more were quiet and non polluting like mine.
Also I'm surprised to learn these parking places are at a premium. It was my understanding the BP subscription was all included.
The parking for charging in the Mamila mall that I was referring to is the same cost as regular parking. There is on street parking around there but it's very hard to find and is a little cheaper. BP has 12 spots, far from the entrance. I've seen them all iced but only once when I left at around 10:30pm on a very busy night for Jerusalem. I arrived nice and early to have no problem.
Not reasonable, however, if the charger and installation were paid for by the taxpayer.
Renault mandate battery leases in the UK and EU.
Better Place make battery leasing mandatory. I own my car, but not the battery. Obviously my battery can be switched in 5 mins but only in a suitable station. I guess without the robot it could be done with a car lift in 30 mins.
While I agree that charging by the kWh is preferred, one also must realize that simply parking in front of a charging station (often in a high demand location) incurs costs.
Also, installing public charging infrastructure is EXPENSIVE. It can cost $10-20k to get a L2 charging station installed due to trenching costs, meeting ADA requirements. Don't forget maintenance and insurance (more applicable to DCQC), too.
People like to compare public charging cost to the cost of electricity (or the incremental cost of charging at home), but fail to realize just how much providing public charging infrastructure costs.
In which case in any UK City that would be an absolute bargain.
Parking some parts of London is more than the minimum wage !!
It is quoted as $10,000, and a more accurate figure would be less than $5,000 easily.
If I was in the business I'd do something like a 40-100% margin on electricity with a 1 yr. paydown on the equipment. If that wasn't competitive I'd abandon the market.
Stop with the daytime charging scare. Charging an EV is a fraction of cooling a house. (more on the order of running your electric clothes dryer)
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