Free Electricity for Electric Cars ??

[Micrornd]

http://consumerist.com/2015/10/12/s...g-electric-vehicle-owners-against-each-other/

This article seems to read as though California and other places around the country are giving away electricity to electric car owners, forcing the rest of us to foot the bill.

Can any Cali residents confirm that or are they set up "vending machine style" as they should be?

 

[NoTine42]

My dad always wanted to buy a solar charged electric car, and then park it under a street light at night

 

[ultimatebob]

http://consumerist.com/2015/10/12/s...g-electric-vehicle-owners-against-each-other/

This article seems to read as though California and other places around the country are giving away electricity to electric car owners, forcing the rest of us to foot the bill.

Can any Cali residents confirm that or are they set up "vending machine style" as they should be?

Connecticut is basically doing the same thing by offering free charging ports at some public rest stops. I haven't seen anyone fighting over the charging stalls, though. We just don't have that many electric cars yet, and even the Tesla Supercharger stalls usually have an open space.

A lot of businesses like grocery stores are adding charging stations as well. That makes economic sense, though... the car will probably take $2 worth of power while the owner goes in and buys $200 worth of groceries in the hour it takes to charge the car.

 

[Childs]

Many businesses set these up and they are free for their customers or employees. Frys has had some for at least 15 years. The building I work in has some, and are putting in more. I assume these charging stations are subsidized in some way, just like the commuter initiatives most companies around here are doing these days.

 

[SlitheryDee]

http://consumerist.com/2015/10/12/s...g-electric-vehicle-owners-against-each-other/

This article seems to read as though California and other places around the country are giving away electricity to electric car owners, forcing the rest of us to foot the bill.

Can any Cali residents confirm that or are they set up "vending machine style" as they should be?

The people who can afford an electric car probably pay more taxes than "the rest of us" anyway. I imagine they see it as finally getting a little value for their tax dollar.

 

[Eug]

I'm not in the US, but have had some conversations with electric car owners in Canada and the US.

I have a Plug-in Prius and there aren't many free plug-in spots here in Toronto but there are some. Most of the spots it seems are actually in parking lots. You pay the same as a regular car for parking but you get to use the car charger for free. That seems OK. Bonus for me, but in the end I'm still paying for it.

In my conversation with others with electric cars, it seems some of them are @ssholes. Some felt Plug-in Priuses shouldn't be allowed in these spots, because they have gas backup. Others felt if there is a charging Prius there, they should be able to unplug it and plug in their own car, because their car is a "real" electric car and not a plug-in hybrid.

My response is that if they aren't smart enough to plan their trips with their electric cars, they maybe they shouldn't have bought electric cars in the first place.

I do think it's reasonable to unplug a car once it's stopped charging though.

And I do agree that regular gas-fueled cars with no plug-in support should stay out of the designated plug-in spots. Unfortunately, there are fair number of gas-car @ssholes too who simply park in those spots, meaning nobody can charge there.

BTW, I get free charging at work. There is no charger, just some regular 120 V outlets. I asked the parking manager and he said I was free to use them, if I brought my own charger. Consequently, in the last 8 months, I've only gassed up this car about 6 times.

 

[Ackmed]

There are two parking spots that have them in a park I frequent. I have never looked, but now wonder if they are free? It is a pretty busy park, and never seen a car being charged there. I have parked my car there once, which is the exact opposite of an electric car, because there was no other spots open. If it was handicapped I wouldn't have, but I didn't feel too bad.

 

[KeithP]

The people who can afford an electric car probably pay more taxes than "the rest of us" anyway.

They probably pay more if you just look at the dollar amounts but if you look at the taxes they pay as a percentage of their income they are more than likely paying less.

Electric cars might be the future but right now they are costing society more then they are paying back in benefits by a large margin.

-KeithP

 

[John Connor]

California...the real nuts.

Electric cars are just plain stupid. They don't do shit for pollution and what if you want to take a long trip? What's the charging time? 4 hours minimum? Then how do you recycle the battery?

LNG is where it's at and the U.S. is the number one producer of it.

 

[yinan]

California...the real nuts.

Electric cars are just plain stupid. They don't do shit for pollution and what if you want to take a long trip? What's the charging time? 4 hours minimum? Then how do you recycle the battery?

LNG is where it's at and the U.S. is the number one producer of it.

300 mile range
Half hour charge time
At least a 10 year warranty on the battery.

 

[LTC8K6]

Free electricity, a tax rebate, and little or no highway use payments.

It's good to be wealthy!

 

[LTC8K6]

300 mile range
Half hour charge time
At least a 10 year warranty on the battery.

But we still have a very shaky electrical grid in the US.

Almost no one mentions it until we get a cold snap in the winter, or a heat wave in the summer, and the grid buckles under the strain somewhere.

 

[John Connor]

300 mile range
Half hour charge time
At least a 10 year warranty on the battery.

So I guess I sit at the rest stop for 30 minutes?

 

[yinan]

Honestly how much longer is that than a normal break, 15 minutes? Not too bad for free...

 

[Scarpozzi]

I saw EV Charging stations recently at Disney World. The other kicker is that the stations are up near the handicapped parking...so if you have an EV, not only do you charge it for free, but you park much closer too. I guess that's more incentive to buy one before everyone else gets one.

 

[thomsbrain]

When they say "public" they just mean accessible to the general public, not that the government is paying for it. I know of no "free" charging stations that aren't provided by employers, government-employee parking lots, paid parking lots, malls, or Tesla Superchargers. With the exception of charging spots in government lots (with permitted access), taxpayers aren't footing the bill for charging (though of course there are all those big tax credits for the car purchase).

Their point is just that there aren't enough charging stations (of any kind) outside people's home to meet the demand.

 

[twinrider1]

So I guess I sit at the rest stop for 30 minutes?

Drive 300 miles.
Eat lunch while your vehicle charges.
Drive another 300 miles.

In the past 2 years, how many days did you drive over 600 miles?

 

[Micrornd]

I understand businesses offering charging stations, that can make sense from a PR standpoint.

But my point about these "public" charging stations is - Why should anyone, other than the drivers of the electric cars have to pay for the electricity and cost of installing a charging station.
We, the public are paying for that.
I don't see any "public gas stations" where I can fill up for free.
I have to pay for the product (gasoline or diesel) and infrastructure to deliver it.
I can't even ride the bus for free.

Why should we be paying for electric car drivers to recharge their cars?
That makes no sense at all.

Edit: posted this before I saw thomsbrain's post.
btw - is that actually true, can someone confirm?
ultimatebob indicated that was not true in Connecticut.

 

[ALIVE]

Drive 300 miles.
Eat lunch while your vehicle charges.
Drive another 300 miles.

In the past 2 years, how many days did you drive over 600 miles?

everyone when talk about electrical cars they say what about range
and when you ask them
how much you drive every day they drive max 15 miles to work and that back
but then they say and if i want to make a big trip lol

for crying out loud
the only reason airplanes made it is because no one wants to drive the distance

what is more possible make a huge road trip or fly over there???

and 30 min to recharge for another 300 miles
oh what a disaster
as if you are not going to make stops because of the long hours driving and actually is illegal not making stops. so driving 4 hours to run out and then make 30 min break wow how bad that is.

if we want to talk lets be serious let talk of not many places to charge the car which now is the case thats more of a problem a real problem
the 300 miles range you will not make it in 1 sec and then you will have to wait for another 30 min lol lets be serious

as for the reliability of the grid??
what about strikes on petrol stations?? problems at refueling??
i have been at long trips and some time i almost run out
because next petrol station was closed it was night, the next was without petrol and likely with the fumes i made it to the 3rd and refuel. so what about the probability of a trip you actually run out of petrol also?? because of bad reliability of the petrol stations network??

for crying out loud you can go to a petrol station and be lucky enough to have their tank broken and all the petrol gone from the tank
and if you make a 600 or more trip you are most likely in highways and in laces you do not know so when the next station will be is more or less unknown.

 

[herm0016]

we have a volt, and I work in the oil/gas industry.

Most of time the chargers we find are either pay (and cost way more than just using gas), or provided by the business that they are in front of.
electric cars (when new) may get a one time tax credit but the bottom line tax difference if you are talking about highway taxes are negligible at best as the number of miles the electric cars are used is normally much below that of an ice car using gas and paying gas tax. also, at least in CO, you buy an rfid sticker that lets you use "free" public charging. not free after you are forced to get the sticker for 50 bucks. we have used less than 1 dollar worth of that "free" charging.

Electric cars might be the future but right now they are costing society more then they are paying back in benefits by a large margin.

-KeithP

hogwash. pure and simple.
The est. cost of the tax credits for purchasing ev and plug in cars is less than 2B over the life of the program (2011-2019) acording to the CBO. total guess, but I bet the amount of extra tax paid for the more expensive EV cars people are purchasing is more than that.
plug in and ev sales: a cumulative on road number of around 375k and less than 0.8 % of yearly market share at its peak (2014) and less than 0.5% in 2015.

None of it is "costing society" any more than any other thing we do in this country. ex: the pres. election is going to cost taxpayers about 6B. the cost benefit on that is sure to be negative!

it costs less than a dollar to charge my car at home, and we have 4200 watts of owned solar (the credits were sold to the utility) so i guess we are actually reducing co2 output as well.

 

[Ackmed]

Do you only get the credit on a new electric car?

 

[herm0016]

Do you only get the credit on a new electric car?

YES.

 

[ALIVE]

we have a volt, and I work in the oil/gas industry.

Most of time the chargers we find are either pay (and cost way more than just using gas), or provided by the business that they are in front of.
electric cars (when new) may get a one time tax credit but the bottom line tax difference if you are talking about highway taxes are negligible at best as the number of miles the electric cars are used is normally much below that of an ice car using gas and paying gas tax. also, at least in CO, you buy an rfid sticker that lets you use "free" public charging. not free after you are forced to get the sticker for 50 bucks. we have used less than 1 dollar worth of that "free" charging.



hogwash. pure and simple.
The est. cost of the tax credits for purchasing ev and plug in cars is less than 2B over the life of the program (2011-2019) acording to the CBO. total guess, but I bet the amount of extra tax paid for the more expensive EV cars people are purchasing is more than that.
plug in and ev sales: a cumulative on road number of around 375k and less than 0.8 % of yearly market share at its peak (2014) and less than 0.5% in 2015.

None of it is "costing society" any more than any other thing we do in this country. ex: the pres. election is going to cost taxpayers about 6B. the cost benefit on that is sure to be negative!

it costs less than a dollar to charge my car at home, and we have 4200 watts of owned solar (the credits were sold to the utility) so i guess we are actually reducing co2 output as well.

and the ridiculous 10k $ tax on batteries for the ev??
that effectively makes any ev to cost twice as much in usa???
how much elecricity you have prepaid with that tax????

 

[Ackmed]

YES.

Don't have to yell... was only asking. :/

I have bought just one new car in my life, so it wouldn't apply to me buying one of these. Not a huge fan of electric cars anyways. I could maybe use it as a spare, not a primary. No SUV yet that I am aware of. I still enjoy the noise and smell of my DD car too much.

 

[herm0016]

and the ridiculous 10k $ tax on batteries for the ev??
that effectively makes any ev to cost twice as much in usa???
how much elecricity you have prepaid with that tax????

eh?

there is no separate tax on batteries...