Charge Session Limit Poll Results

Several weeks ago, I posted a poll about public charging habits.  This was primarily due to the huge increase of Tesla's using the very limited resources we "peon EVers"have at our disposal. Well, as you can guess, the responses covered everything plus more. Very enlightening. As expected, most selected the "politically correct" response of 30 mins and go or less if you can get what you need or a variation thereof.  Kudo's to the people with total honesty who selected "charge all day" and there were not many as expected.

But a lot of possible compromises including;

**Just put in more charging stations!"

**If they all worked like they are supposed to, we wouldn't have a queue!"

**Increase billing after 60 mins

**Allow a 2nd non consecutive session at EVGO for example with higher per minute rates but no additional connect fee

**cuts off at 80% SOC

**Escalating cost when SOC passes 80%

**Billing by the minute causes price escalation at high SOC when charge rate slows way down

There is an underlying reason why I posed this question. Instituting a time limit like 30 mins at every fast charger will create a lot of anger especially among EV owners with larger packs. This anger will hopefully turn into momentum towards getting more chargers installed. The desire, especially among Tesla drivers to support a public charging network is weak and its easy to understand. Most will spend whatever time it takes to get the charge they need regardless of who is sitting there waiting. As long as this goes on, a voice and a very powerful one at that, has no reason to speak up. We cannot afford this inaction.   Tesla seemingly has the foresight to build their public charging network but the sheer volume of Tesla's on the road will inevitably lead to chademo's and CCS stations seeing an even greater uptick than we are already seeing now.

**Just put in more charging stations!" 
Ok, so the obvious. Tesla is doing it.  I will soon have 8 SCs within 75 miles of my house, 12 within 150 miles of my house. That pretty much covers every scenario I can think of. Add one in the Silverdale area and that we are at 100%.   Now WA has started funding a program (thanks to us!) to promote and expand the network. We also have the VW money which was supposed to start showing results this Summer. Haven't heard any stations yet here and Summer is now more than half over.

**If they all worked like they are supposed to, we wouldn't have a queue!"
Well, that isn't quite true but having all of them working especially the several Blink Chademo's that are either down or abandoned would be a huge help until the above mentioned start making a difference.

**Increase billing after 60 mins
Interesting concept but geared towards a larger pack. I think it should be after 30 mins since most EVs on the road now can really only take advantage of 30 mins of QC.

**Allow a 2nd non consecutive session at EVGO for example with higher per minute rates but no additional connect fee
Not positive what this means but guessing it was addressed to EVGO stations that have a 30 min time limit for fast charge sessions.  I would think that anyone using them on a regular basis would have the subscription option since single use is so expensive but this would be more inconvenient if we allow longer charging sessions with no monetary repercussions.  Another twist on this is allowing one to move to an L2 without an additional connect fee if one applies.  Currently the L2s at EVGO in the area are free. It would be nice to think that EVGO did this to reduce camping at the fast chargers.

**cuts off at 80% SOC
This would suck.  I easily get to 90-95% SOC in 30 mins on my 30 kwh LEAF with 125 amp (50 KW) stations.

**Escalating cost when SOC passes 80%
See above. The main concern is time.  IOW, how long should a single car be able to monopolize a very vital and still rare resource?

**Billing by the minute causes price escalation at high SOC when charge rate slows way down

This is a solution some stations have adopted to address cars that only need a few hours to charge but are parked at the station all day.  Primarily for L2 stations but could be a solution but still leaves it up the driver and his ability to pay and are we not already tired of the privileged few? 

One thing this poll makes clear. There is going to be a lot of pain before it gets better if it ever gets better. The consensus is clear that most EVers will simply monopolize the station for however long it takes to get the charge they need and the lower the cost, the longer they will prevent someone else from charging.   Because WA has generally cheap electricity (Last I checked, we were still #1 in the nation) there is less people charging publicly to lower their home electricity bills but that is probably not nearly as true as more expensive places in California where I suspect many are taking advantage of the various free charging programs to load up even if only a few miles from home. 

So I guess the right answer is the first one. Build more chargers.  I think we need to come to the realization that EVs are here to stay and the adoption rate is exponential. We need to get ahead of the curve before it skyrockets. Failing to do so will be disastrous.