Recently a fellow LEAFer from Portland, OR posted that he noticed the AV portal was billing a $2.50 charge to each session. I logged into mine and found that charge as been there since day one. So guessing the charge I see is some sort of accounting placeholder for when real charges happen. Hopefully, that is all it is because...
Quick charging is quick...for about the first 8-12 minutes. After that, the rate drops off fast, but that is ok. In a LEAF, that is long enough to get to the next quick charge station 20-30 miles down the road so why stay longer? Even if there is nothing to do or the desire to do anything, a 10 minute is bearable. Even better, a bathroom break or stop for drinks will eat up most if not all of that time.
But if AV goes forward with flat rate charging this could be a mistake. This will encourage people to charge longer since it is possible in most cases to get a fuller charge and make it to the 2nd quick charge station down the road. This opens up the very strong possibility that a backup can occur at a popular charging station.
Now it would not be so bad if the "80% in 30 minutes" was enough to get you two stations down the road but unless you are very efficient, the weather is right and the route is friendly, its not going to happen for most of us. In a new LEAF driving conservatively, an 80% charge should get us 60-64 miles which is just about how far the 2nd QC station will be but we dont want to run the SOC to that low of a level (plus not a good idea to cut it that close) if we can help it not to mention that most of us will be driving a LEAF with a least some range degradation. So a 90% charge is probably where we need to be.
Unfortunately, that extra 10% is going to mean another 20 minutes charging so now we have gone from 15 minutes to 50 minutes. or 4 cars getting enough to make it to the next station every hour to just one making it two stations away.
AV; take my advice. I understand the flat rate. Easier on the books and all that but I think its a mistake. I'd rather see a connect charge then a charge per Kwh instead. That way, I will still want to get my 12 minutes and open up the station for the next guy!
