Everything You Want to Know About EV Charging - My Adventure

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fetv

Well-known member
Joined
Mar 31, 2015
Messages
114
Everything You Want to Know About EV Charging - My Adventure
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHGvxnliFnA[/youtube]

There is only one kind of gas station but there are so many different EV charge stations. There are different charging networks and different equipment manufacturers and standards.

I will share with you my adventures at various EV charge stations and the mistakes I made. If there are people at the charge station ahead of you, you may not know what to ask yet, then, after other people leave, and it is your turn to charge, then there is no one around whom you can ask. Sure, you may feel embarrassed about asking questions, but you should be grateful if there is someone around the station who can explain things to you. When there was no one around, I had to spend a long time to figure things out myself. I really wished someone had made this kind of collection of videos for me to learn from.
 
I bought my car used so no EZ Charge card for me, so how many different cards do I need?

I have ChargePoint and EV Connect.

I signed up for Blink and NRG EVGO, waiting to receive the cards. What other company should I have so I'm prepared to charge when I get somewhere ?

Thanks for the video and info ! I'm pretty social, I ask questions when I am waiting in line or someone is there charging also.

Sondra
 
Besides those 4, I have GE and AeroEnviroment. AE cut a deal in Dallas with several government centers and local utility to put up a few free charging L2 stations. If they work for you, they are Seinfeld "gold". GE pops up in a few places in the Dallas exurbs. They are all pay, but similar to oases in the desert in case of emergency. NRG in Dallas is the bulk provider of QC usually at Walgreen's and curiously, gas mart type stations. As I noted in earlier post, I have never seen the QC portion of the QC/L2 tandem in over 2 months. The side benefit is I rarely if ever see NRG slots filled by ICEs. Maybe because they look like Dalek robots. Nobody respects Blink stations for some reason so do not count on them unless you know the traffic pattern.
 
I have created the accounts from different networks, but I believe you don't have to get a physical card, you may use the chargepoint card to link your accounts from other networks. Be aware, each network would need to draw some $30 to start with even if you only charged $3.

Sondy132001 said:
I bought my car used so no EZ Charge card for me, so how many different cards do I need?

I have ChargePoint and EV Connect.

I signed up for Blink and NRG EVGO, waiting to receive the cards. What other company should I have so I'm prepared to charge when I get somewhere ?

Thanks for the video and info ! I'm pretty social, I ask questions when I am waiting in line or someone is there charging also.

Sondra
 
Sondy132001 said:
I bought my car used so no EZ Charge card for me, so how many different cards do I need?

I have ChargePoint and EV Connect.

I signed up for Blink and NRG EVGO, waiting to receive the cards. What other company should I have so I'm prepared to charge when I get somewhere ?

Go to Plugshare.com and explore the areas where you're likely to want public charges, to see which charge networks are prevalent in your region.
 
fetv said:
I have created the accounts from different networks, but I believe you don't have to get a physical card, you may use the chargepoint card to link your accounts from other networks. Be aware, each network would need to draw some $30 to start with even if you only charged $3.

Thanks for the heads up !

Sondy132001 said:
I bought my car used so no EZ Charge card for me, so how many different cards do I need?

I have ChargePoint and EV Connect.

I signed up for Blink and NRG EVGO, waiting to receive the cards. What other company should I have so I'm prepared to charge when I get somewhere ?

Thanks for the video and info ! I'm pretty social, I ask questions when I am waiting in line or someone is there charging also.

Sondra
 
yes, physical card is easy to use if it works. When physical card does not work, you may try the app.

DesertSprings said:
I have a GreenFields account. They never sent me a card, but I use the SmartPhone app to start charging.
 
So Sunday night I was low, hit the Irvine Spectrum and there were 4 chargers all in a row on the East Side, they were GE Watt Stations. I don't have an account with them, so I found another place that took ChargePoint and I was already flashing _ _ _ which made me nervous. So today I signed up for GE Watt, but I had to go to Amazon to buy a plastic credit card type card for them, it was $9.43 with shipping, is this correct ?? They don't even send you a free card like NRG or ChargePoint ?
 
use an app would be cheaper, if you don't have data plan, get a free one below:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=44CArktLswk[/youtube]

Sondy132001 said:
So Sunday night I was low, hit the Irvine Spectrum and there were 4 chargers all in a row on the East Side, they were GE Watt Stations. I don't have an account with them, so I found another place that took ChargePoint and I was already flashing _ _ _ which made me nervous. So today I signed up for GE Watt, but I had to go to Amazon to buy a plastic credit card type card for them, it was $9.43 with shipping, is this correct ?? They don't even send you a free card like NRG or ChargePoint ?
 
I paid a set up fee for both NRG and GE. THE GE account by going through Amazon allowed use of a credit. Since GE is strictly a back up to a back up for me, using found money was the reason I got one.

I believe every service except AeroEnviro charged a fee for the card or fob. Blink did it in first bill. I think our local utility pays for the Aero fobs. It made sense to me. Those cards and fobs are not free to make, code or distribute.

I could use the app or phone, but decided to remove one layer of complication. If I really needed access, I did not want to get excluded because of a telecommunications issue.
 
mjblazin said:
I paid a set up fee for both NRG and GE. THE GE account by going through Amazon allowed use of a credit. Since GE is strictly a back up to a back up for me, using found money was the reason I got one.

I believe every service except AeroEnviro charged a fee for the card or fob. Blink did it in first bill. I think our local utility pays for the Aero fobs. It made sense to me. Those cards and fobs are not free to make, code or distribute.

I could use the app or phone, but decided to remove one layer of complication. If I really needed access, I did not want to get excluded because of a telecommunications issue.

No way should they charge you for a card or fob, seriously they are making money off of you for using their equipment. I did not pay for my ChargePoint or NRG cards/fobs and my EVConnect is an app on my iphone, if they have a card/fob I'll need to get one of those too, what if for some crazy reason you don't have cell service ? and can't use the app. The only reason I got the GE app is in case of emergency, because they charged me for a card? I will do my best to NOT use their equipment.
 
mjblazin said:
I paid a set up fee for both NRG and GE. THE GE account by going through Amazon allowed use of a credit. ...
Really? That's one I don't have because I don't do PayPal. If I can get an account linked to a credit card instead, I'd do it. I'll have to look into it.
 
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