DC Fast charger coming to Camarillo Premium Outlet Stores

[ELROY]

I have been complaining to city hall about why we have no chargers in our city (besides the L2 ones at our university). I spoke to a eVgo rep at the Oxnard plug-in day gathering last weekend. He said they will be putting chargers in soon at the Camarillo Premium Outlet stores. I just drove by there tonight and sure enough they are well underway into installing the units. They have a trench cut in the parking lot leading directly to a huge transformer. This will be the first DCFC in Ventura County, and it just happens to be in the city I live in!

 

[BIGneutrino]

This is a good location! It's going to be nice not having to climb that grade to get to the Thousand Oaks CHAdeMO, to just then turn around to back down to Malibu.

 

[TonyWilliams]

Great news and perfect location!

 

[KeiJidosha]

Yes, a great location, just off the 101 freeway before the Conejo grade, adjacent to stores, restaurants theaters, and hotels.
Any idea if they will be updating the existing L2 location?

 

[Randy]

Very nice...

Have you seen their pricing and special offers yet?

You can call (877) 455-3833 to ask questions.

California Pricing:
http://www.evgonetwork.com/charging-plans-california/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

60 day unlimited access offer:
http://www.evgonetwork.com/60-day-access-california/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

 

[ELROY]

Very nice...

Have you seen their pricing and special offers yet?

You can call (877) 455-3833 to ask questions.

California Pricing:
http://www.evgonetwork.com/charging-plans-california/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

60 day unlimited access offer:
http://www.evgonetwork.com/60-day-access-california/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Well, he gave me this pamphlet.
Reasonable pricing on charging IF you pay the monthly subscription of $14.95 for DC fast charging.
Then its only 10 cents a minute. So probably $2.00 would get most LEAFs close to 70-80% charge.
Without the monthly subscription for 20 minutes its $9.95! Clearly they want you to subscribe.

On level 2 its $1/hr if you pay the $5.95 monthly fee...otherwise its $2.50hr!

So if you QC enough, the $2-$3 fee beats the $5 Blink rate. But you have to use it enough to make up for the $14.95 monthly. Probably have to use it more than 5x a month to beat out the Blink rates. And of course the $9.95 20 minute charge without subscription is absurd!

But if they truly roll these out everywhere...and include the SAE combo plug, perhaps this network could be worth the monthly fee based on convenience and the ability to reliably travel without having to wait for dealerships hours..etc. I mean if you are charging at home during peak hrs, and 2nd tier levels, you are paying over a $1/hr anyways..so the DCFC is competitive as far as the $2 (20 minute session) is concerned.

Now I'm wondering if you want level 2 use and DCFC do you have to pay the $14.95+$5.95 fees??? A little harder to swallow considering I don't even think my monthly electric bill (at 10 cents/kWh super off peak) amounts to over $30/month.

But yes...that $7.95 unlimited 60 day intro offer sounds awesome. Going to sign up for that for sure. Will probably be driving a lot of miles in the next 2 months! Too bad they didn't just have a $4/month for an unlimited amount of months!

http://www.evgonetwork.com/60-day-access-california/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

 

[Randy]

As far as the $9.95 pricing being absurd, the NRG eVgo settlement with the CPUC calls out for a $7 minimum price and a maximum price of $10 during off peak times and a maximum of $15 during peak times.

So they can't go any lower than $7 for an ala carte fast charge no matter what...

fyi, Blink was losing money in California at $5 per DC Fast Charge. Their actual cost was a lot more than $5...

 

[ELROY]

As far as the $9.95 pricing being absurd, the NRG eVgo settlement with the CPUC calls out for a $7 minimum price and a maximum price of $10 during off peak times and a maximum of $15 during peak times.

So they can't go any lower than $7 for an ala carte fast charge no matter what...

fyi, Blink was losing money in California at $5 per DC Fast Charge. Their actual cost was a lot more than $5...

Didn't research it, but why the mandate for a minimum charge rate?

 

[TonyWilliams]

Didn't research it, but why the mandate for a minimum charge rate?

Because a multi-billion dollar corporation can easily use predatory pricing to bankrupt all the competition (super easy to do in the LEAF community, where any cost above free could mean "Just-Drive-The-Prius(TM)").

Once all the competition was gone, then they could charge "at-will". Should competition show up, unless that competition has extremely deep pockets, they can easily be run out of business again.

NRG/eVgo has a good, sustainable model that hopefully lots of people will support with monthly subscriptions. At EVoasis, the ad hoc costs are the same as the eVgo negotiated amounts, $10/$15 per hour off-peak and peak pricing, however, there is no minimum. Since the per use costs are prorated by the minute, you could have as small a cost as you want per visit. Don't worry, little EVoasis won't put NRG out of business!!!

 

[ELROY]

Didn't research it, but why the mandate for a minimum charge rate?

Because a multi-billion dollar corporation can easily use predatory pricing to bankrupt all the competition (super easy to do in the LEAF community, where any cost above free could mean "Just-Drive-The-Prius(TM)").

Once all the competition was gone, then they could charge "at-will". Should competition show up, unless that competition has extremely deep pockets, they can easily be run out of business again.

NRG/eVgo has a good, sustainable model that hopefully lots of people will support with monthly subscriptions. At EVoasis, the ad hoc costs are the same as the eVgo negotiated amounts, $10/$15 per hour off-peak and peak pricing, however, there is no minimum. Since the per use costs are prorated by the minute, you could have as small a cost as you want per visit. Don't worry, little EVoasis won't put NRG out of business!!!

I have tried quick charging perhaps half a dozen times now. Besides the increased battery degradation, I noticed that even though it said 80% on the charger, I rarely got much above 70% on the LEAF ELM battery app. So charging from perhaps 20% to 70% is maybe 12kWh? So about 3.5hrs of home L2 charging. Perhaps $1.35 (10 cents/kWh). So spending $2 for 20 minutes of DCFC is not bad. But throw in the subscription fee, you have to use it enough to make it economically feasible. And at $9.95, it could be comparable to driving a 17mpg gas guzzler. Not very desirable. But I do like the per minute charge. There are times when all you need is a 10 minute boost. At least you can be charged according to your energy used on this network.

 

[gaswalla]

will be nice to use with the new chaedemo/tesla adapter while going up the coast!

 

[DaveEV]

I am quite happy to pay $10/charge when I need a full charge - I only wish they would follow the EVoasis model and charge by the minute instead. There's many times I will want only a 10 minute QC instead of a full session.

 

[ELROY]

I am quite happy to pay $10/charge when I need a full charge - I only wish they would follow the EVoasis model and charge by the minute instead. There's many times I will want only a 10 minute QC instead of a full session.

Well it is almost $10 for the 20 minute session.
But as long as you subscribe and pay the monthly fee....the charge visits are at .10 cents a minute.
The fastest charging is probably in the first 10-15 minutes anyways.

 

[ELROY]

Stopped by the outlet stores tonight. Looks like the install is progressing nicely...

 

[ELROY]

Out of curiosity, I went to check by the food court on the other side of the outlet stores. Seemingly overnight, they replaced the old paddle chargers with new L2 chargers. They look like Charge Point units, but they say EvGo on them.

 

[user 10599]

Awesome!!!!

I live in T.O., but work in Camarillo. On Occasions, I have to also go to Oxnard and Northridge. When I knew in advance, I'd just take the ICE. If I got surprised and had to do that much driving, it meant stopping at home mid-trip to switch to the ICE. Now I can reliably use my Leaf and stay zero-emissions almost all the time. For those times, $10 for the DCQC is fine.

With the level 2's by the food-court, those places just got onto my map for lunch. I'll also do more shopping there while my car charges.

This location should also make it much more viable for LA residents to run up to Santa Barbara.

I'll stop by next week and advise if the L2s are operating.

Now off I go to evgo's website to sign-up.

 

[ELROY]

Awesome!!!!

I live in T.O., but work in Camarillo. On Occasions, I have to also go to Oxnard and Northridge. When I knew in advance, I'd just take the ICE. If I got surprised and had to do that much driving, it meant stopping at home mid-trip to switch to the ICE. Now I can reliably use my Leaf and stay zero-emissions almost all the time. For those times, $10 for the DCQC is fine.

With the level 2's by the food-court, those places just got onto my map for lunch. I'll also do more shopping there while my car charges.

This location should also make it much more viable for LA residents to run up to Santa Barbara.

I'll stop by next week and advise if the L2s are operating.

Now off I go to evgo's website to sign-up.

If you know you are going to be using it more than 5x a month, just pay the $14.95 monthly subscription fee. Then, a 15-20 minute charge will only run you $1.50-$2.00 per session. Again, you get the most for you money in the first 10-15 minutes, while the charge rate is still in the 30kw+ range.

And then of course the $7.99 unlimited for the first 2 months is a sensational deal.

The QC is really a better deal than the EvGo L2 there. Especially if you have the 3.3kw charger. $1.00 for 10 minutes at 40-45kw is much better than 1 hr at 3.3kw, and saves time.

 

[Deleted member 770]

As far as the $9.95 pricing being absurd, the NRG eVgo settlement with the CPUC calls out for a $7 minimum price and a maximum price of $10 during off peak times and a maximum of $15 during peak times.

So they can't go any lower than $7 for an ala carte fast charge no matter what...

fyi, Blink was losing money in California at $5 per DC Fast Charge. Their actual cost was a lot more than $5...

If the above is correct, then their monthly subscription fees could be out of compliance. If a monthly subscriber uses the station even 15 days per month, then (s)he is paying $1.00 per day for a subscription + $2.00 for a single 20-minute charge session, which equals $3.00 per session. If you further assume charging EVERY day, or even more than once per day, the subscription model is even more out of compliance with the settlement terms.

I haven't read this settlement, but there must be more to it than that.

And the only reason I can think of that Blink was losing money at $5.00 per charge is that their equipment was down so much of the time.

 

[Randy]

The NRG / CPUC agreement is here:
http://www.cpuc.ca.gov/NR/rdonlyres/CD5E3578-5EAD-47BA-BC5A-B6BD398CCBF6/0/JointOfferofSettlement.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Pricing discussion starts on page 42 of the pdf...Subscribers and Single use customers are discussed...Minimum and maximum pricing is related to single use customers; subscriber pricing is not discussed. I believe the minimum and maximum pricing is just to allow reasonable access to non-subscribers, but those prices don't apply to subscribers...

And as far as Blink goes, like any vendor that is dispensing DC Fast Charge services, 90+% of the cost in California is not for the kwh used, it is for the demand charge that is part of the bill. In our area, a 50kW station incurs a demand charge of about $1,000 worst case with the first DC Fast charge dispensed. You need to charge a lot more cars in that month to defray that demand charge among the other charging sessions for that month to make it pay off.

It's not uncommon to service 1-5 cars per day with a typical DC FC, depending on location...

One car per day works out to be $33 each for the monthly demand charge.
Five cars per day is still $6.70 each for the monthly demand charge....

The basic issue is that the demand from the typical DC FC is relatively high, but they don't use that much energy in a month (so demand charges dominate)...

 

[user 10599]

Stopped by on Friday. Still not up and running, but looks like they are getting close. The Level 2s seem ready to go. The DCQC station was getting decals added when I drove by.

I talked with evgo. I think I will wait until this site is operational, then I will give their 2-month special a shot.