ChargePoint experiences?

I'm planning next week to take my son to hockey training camp which will test the range of my Spark EV and was wondering if any of you existing EV owners have any experiences using the ChargePoint public chargers? I have signed up at http://www.chargepoint.com/ as the Spark EV came with a "Getting Started" ChargePoint card and information and there are locations on the map in close proximity to the area I will be in. Looks like the fees vary from location to location but hopefully the one nearby will be available and working.

I've tried a few of them out. Just make sure you have your card because you can't really use it without it.

3 of the ones I used were free so it was pretty awesome. The display said it was charging at about 3.2 kw.

One them at a mall was like $2/hour. You can get a max of 3.3wkh so it would cost about $.60 / kwh so I wouldn't recommend that unless you NEED to charge it.

So far all of the chargers worked perfectly fine for me.

On a side note, if you do forget the card, you can use your phone with Google Wallet and NFC to activate a charger. But there is like a $1 fee to do it.

wutangmo15 said:

I've tried a few of them out. Just make sure you have your card because you can't really use it without it.

3 of the ones I used were free so it was pretty awesome. The display said it was charging at about 3.2 kw.

One them at a mall was like $2/hour. You can get a max of 3.3wkh so it would cost about $.60 / kwh so I wouldn't recommend that unless you NEED to charge it.

So far all of the chargers worked perfectly fine for me.

On a side note, if you do forget the card, you can use your phone with Google Wallet and NFC to activate a charger. But there is like a $1 fee to do it.

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Great, thanks for the feedback. I do have the card so I'm ready to go.

so far i didnt need to charge mine elsewhere, but i also made a card with blink, looks like they have more charging stations in my area. also i would recommended having plugshare.com handy - a crowd-supported map that shows free or paid charging points, and even 120V power sockets in random places in parking structures.

My work has a private ChargePoint station and it works fine. Just register your account and card, and you should be good to go. Their notifications don't work very well (I typically get OnStar notifications that the car is done charging 15-30 minutes before the ChargePoint notifications).

It's unfortunate that ChargePoint charges by the hour rather than KWh, but oh well...

scotte said:

My work has a private ChargePoint station and it works fine. Just register your account and card, and you should be good to go. Their notifications don't work very well (I typically get OnStar notifications that the car is done charging 15-30 minutes before the ChargePoint notifications).

It's unfortunate that ChargePoint charges by the hour rather than KWh, but oh well...

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Yep, used one today for two hours and it cost me one dollar.

So far so good for me. I have a Chargepoint station at work and it works great, also used one of the ones at Dublin public library, all free. Definately use plugshare as you can find free stations.

scotte said:

My work has a private ChargePoint station and it works fine. Just register your account and card, and you should be good to go. Their notifications don't work very well (I typically get OnStar notifications that the car is done charging 15-30 minutes before the ChargePoint notifications).

It's unfortunate that ChargePoint charges by the hour rather than KWh, but oh well...

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Re: notifications, I suspect it's what the station detects. Ditto re: my Leaf's Carwings notifications vs. Chargepoint. The issue is w/the Leaf and likely other EVs, there's some battery balancing going on near the end and some power bumps. On the '13 Leaf, you'll see a period on Chargepoint's graphs of 0 kW draw then some in the 1.x kW range, then back to 0 and so on. If it sent it right when it hit 0 kW, the car may not be done.

http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?p=338038#p338038 has higher res graphs.

As for charging by the hour vs. by kWh, it's up to the owner as to what they want. There are Chargepoint stations that charge by the kWh.

cwerdna said:

As for charging by the hour vs. by kWh, it's up to the owner as to what they want. There are Chargepoint stations that charge by the kWh.

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SacEVA confirmed a little while back that charge point is switching from hourly to by kWh. .22 I think is their rate. Good for me at the end of the billing cycle when my home rate hits .35.

jay5729 said:

cwerdna said:

As for charging by the hour vs. by kWh, it's up to the owner as to what they want. There are Chargepoint stations that charge by the kWh.

Click to expand...

SacEVA confirmed a little while back that charge point is switching from hourly to by kWh. .22 I think is their rate. Good for me at the end of the billing cycle when my home rate hits .35.

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It's up to the owner (w/administrative access) of the stations, NOT Chargepoint, the company, to set the rates. I think the only public Chargepoint stations owned by Chargepoint are the ones at their HQ in Campbell, CA. The rest of them are NOT owned by Chargepoint, the company. If there are any others owned by them but not at their HQ, they're definitely in the tiny minority.

There are numerous Chargepoint public stations that cost $0.49/kWh. Example: http://api.plugshare.com/view/location/9505.

http://www.chargepoint.com/faq says

How much will I pay to charge my car?

Charging stations on the ChargePoint network are owned and managed by the property owner. Pricing varies as each owner sets the price for use of their stations. You can see the price to use a specific station on our mobile app by viewing the indicated rates on the station details page, or click a charge spot on our online map and view pricing in the station details pop up. The price also scrolls across the charging station's display.

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You can also watch this brief video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EVr3OgSUsBs.