time based fee ban

In order to get full charging speed, the battery temp needs to be at least at 25C/77F.

You can achieve that by accelerating rapidly a few times (more than a few, in fact), maintaining high speed for a while, or simply forcing a powerful regen for a while.

And that's applicable to Konas with battery heater as well (I know because I have one). So if I want a good charging speed in winter, I need to drive like a maniac. I think that's because of a poor design by Hyundai of the battery heating system. It never works so that you can get maximum speed.

 

My wife just got a nasty surprise after she unplugged and drove away from a Chargepoint 6 kW charger. She got an email that said she was charged $9.09 for 1 hour 49 minutes, 43 miles, and 10.68 kWh. This is at a pool (Surrey Newton) where she has taken our daughter swimming many times before and it was always free. My wife did not see a sign about it not being free anymore (not that she was looking for it), but thought it kind of strange that all 6 stations at that location were available. They were always busy before, and sometimes she was not able to get a spot.

When she got home and told me, I looked up Plugshare, and no mention of it not being free anymore, so I gave ChargePoint a call. The guy on the phone was very nice, but said that on the Chargepoint site it does mention the new charge rate. Apparently, they just implemented time based charging at $5 per hour. I always just use Plugshare, but I guess it is not always up to date. Anyway, he offered to refund the amount, and I thought was very kind and gracious of him. Lesson learned, though,... chargers may not always be free forever.

But I still think the amount is kind of excessive. For $9.09 I can go a lot further than 43 miles with my ICE car!! I don't think a lot of people will be using that charger.

I noticed also that our local new Petro Canada fast charger is no longer free either, .27 per min now. Won't be charging there anymore...

Anyway, happy to still be able to say, have yet to pay for a charge, since May 1, 2019 and 15K+ kms later. At least our local charger (just a few blocks away) is still free.

 

No, I have never used that feature, although have often read others' comments. Will have to look into how to do that.

But yeah, that is a crazy rate, and at a location where you would expect them to be friendly to EVs (they used to be). I wonder how long it will stay at that rate, given that not many are likely to charge there.

 

Apparently there was a lot of immediate industry backlash about the
California change, and there's a newer update about it at Electrek. Worth
reading both, in order. Sorry if it's old news; I did try to search for prior mention.

The dismaying thing is that the present CA DMS ruling, likely to become part
of the template for other states, allows the networks to continue the bad
practices on the old gear almost indefinitely [because in EV years, 2033
might as well be next century].

The hopeful thing is that the message *is* nonetheless reaching the network
operators even if they choose to blow it off. EVGo is evidently changing
to kWh billing in some places; I didn't research up a whole matrix of where
but perhaps someone else knows.

The thing is, the counterarguments by the charging networks are ALL so
much bullpuckey. The DCFC charging units are already perfectly capable of
counting kilowatt-hours, even if it's not down to the nanojoule, and
displaying those on stations and invoices RIGHT NOW. They could easily
use that as a far more fair basis for billing. At that point it's just
a question of software, which can likely be provisioned remotely without
even so much as a truck roll, and is certainly not going to cost anyone
the $16 million to "upgrade equipment" that they're fabricating. Even
if it was that much, it would be one of the best apportionments of the
$2B or whatever from the VW settlement in EA's particularly notable case.

Maybe Tesla can't immediately display running energy delivery with their
present gear, but they're coming up with a workaround. The others already
have the full capability, so it's time for them to stop crying poormouth.

So call your charging networks and KEEP COMPLAINING, especially if you're
using them on a regular basis. Give them some of these links, show them
the driver community's pitchforks and torches and tell them to get
serious about listening.

_H*

 

EVgo just opened some 100kW chargers near my office. Still time based, but half the cost of EA.