Walgreens chargers no longer free?

[cgaydos]

My best response to the cost of charging your EV at Walgreens. I would use the service essentially to top off my car. For instance, my drive to and from work totals 50 miles. If I knpw that I may not be able to charge my car completely at home, before leaving for work the next morning,I would stop at Walgreens and purchase, say 8Kw for $4.00 and then plug it in at home to finish the job--less time at Walgreens--and still equivalent to around 80 mpg. Cheaper would be better, but so would 480 volts and a free lunch

Yep, agree. Since those other posts in September I've used Walgreen's chargers maybe 4-5 times with the SemaCharge cards. Each time it was a top-up to get me home. In every case I wasted more money on a meal break at a nearby restaurant than I did on the cost of charging.

[greengate]

I called the manufacturer and found out this was a decision by the owner and not Walgreens.

I say we wage a full fledged and very public boycott of Walgreens to protest this atrocity.
Thoughts?

My thoughts:

I believe, at this moment in time with respect to bringing electric vehicles into the marketplace and on the roads, that this charging for access is short sided and bad public policy.

The Walgreens in my area has been charging. I spoke with them about this and they basically said that that was just how it is...a sign of the times. (Greed by my observation. Just look around. It's all over the place.) I no longer shop at Walgreens.

Even my neighboring town went from free to charging. (They were owned in partnership with the village, but when the owners of the equipment, (I go Car sharing,) were bought out by Enterprise, Enterprise began the charging policy. Now if this isn't capitalism with out a soul, what is.)

It's as if those who want clean air planted these chargers and set them to be accessed for free, (to grow the use of electric vehicles,) were picked clean of the fruit they were just beginning to produce. What conscious farmer or gardner would ever do that. They act as if they were stranded on Donner Pass with this push for more revenue and profits.

[johnrhansen]

I wonder why they even bother. Every time I drive by a walgreens theres no car being charged there. So they get a car or 2 a day, so what? So what's the daily haul? 10 bucks? Wow at that rate it will take millennia to pay for the installation cost for the station. I'd say the money is in the car manufacturers making sure plenty of those stations are available so that people buy their cars, ala tesla. I don't care if it costs a buck or if it free. I do have a problem with those 8 dollar quick chargers. That amount of money is no longer trivial.

[JeremyW]

I'm very glad the walgreens stations cost money, even more then gasoline. Keeps the PHEVs and freeloading EVs away so I can charge when I need to.

Free is not always a good thing...

[greengate]

I'm very glad the walgreens stations cost money, even more then gasoline. Keeps the PHEVs and freeloading EVs away so I can charge when I need to.

Free is not always a good thing...

Sounds like you are all about me, which created the issue in the first place.

Sad to see an electric car driver with this perspective.

[johnrhansen]

There was a huge difference when the charging stations and were free. Quite often I would find it in use. But the owner was sitting in the car. I don't care if electricity at home is 40 cents per kwh, and the public charger was free...its always better to charge at home where you have other things to do than it is to waste 2 hours so you can save 4 bucks. I never could understand why suddenly the stations stopped being used once they started charging for it. They were emergency top off stations for me when they were free!

[DaveEV]

I'm very glad the walgreens stations cost money, even more then gasoline. Keeps the PHEVs and freeloading EVs away so I can charge when I need to.

Free is not always a good thing...

Sounds like you are all about me, which created the issue in the first place.

Sad to see an electric car driver with this perspective.

How does giving away free electricity help anyone? I think if you actually knew Jeremy, you would realize how backwards your comment is.

[Christopher]

I'm very glad the walgreens stations cost money, even more then gasoline. Keeps the PHEVs and freeloading EVs away so I can charge when I need to.

Free is not always a good thing...

Sounds like you are all about me, which created the issue in the first place.

Sad to see an electric car driver with this perspective.

How does giving away free electricity help anyone? I think if you actually knew Jeremy, you would realize how backwards your comment is.

Don't know Jeremy but I agree with his sentiment. Too many people will grab the few available EV charging spots when they're free, even if they don't need the charge, so that they're almost always occupied. With a small reasonable fee, (like the 49 cents/kWh I see often with ChargePoints around here), this tends to keep the units available for those who are actually in need to top off. In other words, yes, "free is not always a good thing"!

[greengate]

I'm very glad the walgreens stations cost money, even more then gasoline. Keeps the PHEVs and freeloading EVs away so I can charge when I need to.

Free is not always a good thing...

Sounds like you are all about me, which created the issue in the first place.

Sad to see an electric car driver with this perspective.

How does giving away free electricity help anyone? I think if you actually knew Jeremy, you would realize how backwards your comment is.

Of course I don't know him. My comments are based upon his posting. If I misunderstood, I'm sorry. I'm not here to flame anyone.

Giving away free electricity is a way to subsidize the promotion of electric vehicles, for all of the various reasons. I see this as very important. It's good for the manufacture, the consumer, the dealer, the environment as well as the one "giving away the free electricity." Giving is good for the heart and it goes a long way toward making this a better world in which to live. There's ample evidence to show that for each "unit" one gives, they receive the like or even greater in return.

Corporate policy needs to have this as a working asset. Unfortunately, It has been operating in the opposite direction. They have continued to take things away from society. IE: resources, unions, off shoring of production and finances, rewards for the employees for increased productivity, pensions, health care, job security and the 40 hour work week, just to name a few.

If gasoline were sold for its actual cost, given its many subsidies, its been said that it would be around $20 or $25 a gallon, yet it sells for roughly $3.50 a gallon today.

A few cents toward the fuel for an electric vehicle pales in comparison. Wouldn't you agree?

[johnrhansen]

I think the cost of the elecricity pales in comparison to the cost of the charging station and installation. Maybe the manufacturers and installers ought to work for free too.