EZ-Charge, 24 months Free Charging Questions

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wekebu

Member
Joined
May 30, 2018
Messages
14
Location
Northern CA (Chico)
I received a card to register for 24 months free charging using the "no charge to charge" from Nissan. When I went to register today, EZCharge wanted my name, address, etc. Then it suggested that I preregister at several companies, like EVgo, blink, -chargepoin+.

Those companies wanted my credit card info. I find this odd considering it's 24 months "free" to charge. I'm concerned that my credit card will charged. (Pun not intended, but I like it) .

Anyone have experience with the free EZ-Charge card? I gotta say, I'm dizzy with all these different companies. Will they all have either the J-1772 or the CHAdeMO?

As you can tell, I'm a new owner...one whole day.
 
I've had a 2017 Leaf for about 8 months and that is exactly how I remember getting setup with EZCharge. I have only used a few public EVSE stations since I can charge for free at work but I have never been charged for using any charger, even though they have my CC info.

The different companies will have different equipment and often a single location will have a variety of charging options available. There are websites and apps (PlugShare.com is a good one) that will show you the charging stations in any area and you can filter them by charger type, cost, etc.

One thing that is constant everywhere is that even if a site is free you will need your EZCharge card (or similar) to activate the charger. The only exception I've seen to this is our local Nissan dealer has a charger that is 'free for all' and requires no charge card.
 
The way it works with EVGo is you can charge for free for 30 minutes. After that they start charging you, and they need a card for that. It isn't the same as a free buffet at a bar, I'm afraid. As long as you watch the clock you should be ok. ChargePoint, BTW, has never charged my credit card for anything other than the required $25 deposit in 5 years. EVGo isn't as reliable, but they tend to get you with the wrong rate.
 
LeftieBiker said:
The way it works with EVGo is you can charge for free for 30 minutes. After that they start charging you, and they need a card for that. It isn't the same as a free buffet at a bar, I'm afraid. As long as you watch the clock you should be ok. ChargePoint, BTW, has never charged my credit card for anything other than the required $25 deposit in 5 years. EVGo isn't as reliable, but they tend to get you with the wrong rate.
Are you sure about this? The QC shuts off at 30 minutes so it has never gone over for me. I then just restart another 30 minute session and it's free.

I'm on my 2nd Leaf and 2nd free 2 years of NCTC. I've never paid for an EvGO session but I have gotten more than 60 free charges and counting.

On L2, I believe you get 2 hours free. Maybe it starts charging after that?
 
I'm not certain, but I seem to recall them recently extending QC sessions to 45 minutes. If that's the case then at 30:01 you get to pay a session fee at least. I also noticed that it keeps counting after you press "Stop" until the station actually shuts off, which is about 25 seconds. I'll look into it.

EDIT: According to this, member sessions are 45 or 60 minutes, but there are no session fees. I don't know, however, if this applies to the NCTC plan.

https://www.evgo.com/about/news/evgo-announces-price-drops-ev-fast-charging-across-u-s/
 
wekebu said:
I received a card to register for 24 months free charging using the "no charge to charge" from Nissan. When I went to register today, EZCharge wanted my name, address, etc. Then it suggested that I preregister at several companies, like EVgo, blink, -chargepoin+.

Those companies wanted my credit card info. I find this odd considering it's 24 months "free" to charge. I'm concerned that my credit card will charged. (Pun not intended, but I like it) .

Anyone have experience with the free EZ-Charge card? I gotta say, I'm dizzy with all these different companies. Will they all have either the J-1772 or the CHAdeMO?

As you can tell, I'm a new owner...one whole day.

I don't think this is a problem. I think they want an ID and financial ability to pay from you in the event you ever encounter a charger that has a fee. I have used ChargePoint for 4 years, and only have been charged when I used a charger in a college that had a.... (HAHA) $2 fee for a full charge. Very reasonable.. Same price as at home..
 
Well, the plot thickens. As it turns out, my dealership is not a participating dealership in the No Charge To Charge program. My card is useless. I've called the dealership yesterday and left a message for the guy above the salesmen (salesmen is on a prescheduled cruise). I've emailed Nissanusa.com Any other suggestions?
 
As a new driver, I can understand why you're excited about free charging. Who doesn't like to get something for free? But as you own your car for awhile, depending on where you live, you'll start to see some competition for the open charging spaces in your area with some or many of the spaces taken by people who are bound and determined to get as much free charging as they can. Even if they can charge at home, many of them won't and will go out of their way to soak up the free charging.

Once you see that happening in your area, you'll realize that free charging isn't as good as you once thought it was. For me, the realization hit when I saw people their LEAFs fast charging when they were almost full and using the last 10 minutes of a 30 minute charging session to increase their SOC by 2 or 3% when people were waiting to use the stations. It's a waste of a good charging resource.

I think it boils down to this: Paying a reasonable price for a charging session is the best way to ensure spaces are open and available when you need them...So enjoy some free charging while being nice to other drivers, and be willing to pay for some charging when you need it at stations that are outside the "Free" program. And enjoy your new EV...
 
wekebu said:
Well, the plot thickens. As it turns out, my dealership is not a participating dealership in the No Charge To Charge program. My card is useless. I've called the dealership yesterday and left a message for the guy above the salesmen (salesmen is on a prescheduled cruise). I've emailed Nissanusa.com Any other suggestions?

You should still be able to use other charging stations. You do mean that you can't use the dealer's own QC station...?
 
Yes, I can charge at stations, just my 24 month free to charge EZ-Charge card doesn't work. I don't think I'll charge away from home often, but wanted to try it out locally and get comfortable with it's use. Since the EZ-Charge card didn't activate, I signed up with Chargepoint and EVgo and used their charging station over the weekend. Pretty easy to use. L2 was slow, CHAdeMo is the way to go.
 
wekebu said:
Yes, I can charge at stations, just my 24 month free to charge EZ-Charge card doesn't work. I don't think I'll charge away from home often, but wanted to try it out locally and get comfortable with it's use. Since the EZ-Charge card didn't activate, I signed up with Chargepoint and EVgo and used their charging station over the weekend. Pretty easy to use. L2 was slow, CHAdeMo is the way to go.

I had to call both Blink and EVGO to get my card activated. Even if I don't use free charging, having one card to use 4 networks seemed like it was worthwhile to me.
 
wekebu said:
Well, the plot thickens. As it turns out, my dealership is not a participating dealership in the No Charge To Charge program. My card is useless. I've called the dealership yesterday and left a message for the guy above the salesmen (salesmen is on a prescheduled cruise). I've emailed Nissanusa.com Any other suggestions?

The dealer has nothing to do with the NCTC program except to give you the card when you buy or lease the car. You need to register the card with the various charging networks in your area. As others have already noted, the free QC sessions are limited to 30 minutes and, at least in my area, Blink L2 charging is no longer included. Also, not all QC locations participate in the NCTC program so you will incur fees if you use those stations (card will still activate the station, but fees will be charged to your credit card on file with that particular network). Plug Share is a good app to use because you can set filters to only show participating locations.

In my case, the 2 years free expired long ago but I can still use the one card to activate and pay for charging on any network instead of having to shuffle through cards to find the right one for each network.
 
I am in the same boat with dealer not participating and I can't even register the card to activate it. EZ Charge server just throws an error. You'd think I should be able to register and use it as a paid service but that does not work either. Dealer has no clue as expected. EZ Charge says dealer is not participating. Shouldn't this be a NIssan thing anyways?
 
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