[Fabulist]

I have been taking photos of my Karma whenever I use a public charging station. It would be interesting if other owners could post about their experience with public chargers. I am usually parked next to a couple of Leafs, and very rarely a Volt. Here are some of the places:

The city of Palo Alto provides free Level II charging through the Chargepoint program at the city-owned parking garages such as this one:

Wallgreens has free charging available at many of its stores also through Chargepoint. This one is in San Francisco's Noe Valley neighborhood:

Free charging at Ikea using the Blink Network. The nice thing is that I did not have to assemble the EVSE using nothing but a hex wrench before plugging in

 

[Ross a klein]

Great idea, I'm using plug share app to find local near palm springs.

 

[Karma31]

PlugShare app is one word for those searching

 

[ffcars]

I hope the Atlanta area gets its act together and we start to see some public charging sites. To my knowledge, there are none yet. I could be wrong, but I watch the Blink and ChargePoint sites and haven't seen anything pop up yet.

 

[LonePalmBJ]

I hope the Atlanta area gets its act together and we start to see some public charging sites. To my knowledge, there are none yet. I could be wrong, but I watch the Blink and ChargePoint sites and haven't seen anything pop up yet.

Amen.

There aren't *none*, but there's darn few. There's a charging station at Atlantic Station, there's a free public station that the city of Woodstock offers (next to a good restaurant named Freight) and there are some various business like grocery stores that have them.

I agree though, Atlanta is behind the curve when it comes to EV charging infrastucture.

 

[MaxMuller]

The ChargePoint iOS app is also excellent. Once you have an account you can track the charge of your car remotely. It will also send you a text when your car is fully charged. A good number of the parking lots in San Francisco now have free ChargePoint stations setup for use (as well as first floor rock star parking). Also Apple has a fair number of ChargePoint stations setup for Apple employees around campus which is handy (although the early bird definitely gets the plug).

 

[aejdh2v]

Here's my baby charging up at a free Level II ChargePoint station at a public parking garage in San Rafael (just north of San Francisco). There was a Leaf using the other station.

Found it though the ChargePoint app on my iPhone, I also have PlugShare which looks pretty good as well.

 

[Ross a klein]

PlugShare app is one word for those searching

Thanks. I drive better than I type thank god. The app is pretty good there are three on the apps store under electric vehicle charging stations. All free

 

[ffcars]

The ChargePoint iOS app is also excellent. Once you have an account you can track the charge of your car remotely. It will also send you a text when your car is fully charged. A good number of the parking lots in San Francisco now have free ChargePoint stations setup for use (as well as first floor rock star parking). Also Apple has a fair number of ChargePoint stations setup for Apple employees around campus which is handy (although the early bird definitely gets the plug).

What does ChargePoint charge per hour?

 

[Fabulist]

What does ChargePoint charge per hour?

Chargepoint does not charge anything per hour. There is a single $4.50 fee to get the card that unlocks the charger. Whoever owns the charger sets the fee. Many places offer free charging right now (such as the city of Palo Alto and Walgreens in my pictures above) and other places charge for it, and it all depends on whoever owns or controls the particular charger. You can choose to add a credit card to your Chargepoint account to pay for charging where there is a charge, or not. Either way, you need to have the card before you can use a Chargepoint charger, even the free ones.

Note that Blink chargers (Ikea above) have their own network and you need to get their card to unlock a Blink charger. Same deal as Chargepoint: the owner of the charger decides if there is a charge or not. I don't know if there is a fee for signing up for the Blink networks since I got mine free when I bought my home EVSE.

 

[aejdh2v]

Here's my baby charging up at a free Level II ChargePoint station at a public parking garage in San Rafael (just north of San Francisco). There was a Leaf using the other station.

Found it though the ChargePoint app on my iPhone, I also have PlugShare which looks pretty good as well.

[Moderator's Note: If you are having trouble seeing the photo, please use URL http://i.pbase.com/g4/82/813782/2/142183872.kK5r14I8.jpg to see it. The sharing site appears to not allow direct linking from the Forum, but if you cut and paste the URL into a browser, you should be able to see it. Fab.]

 

[Dutch]

EV-planking

 

[SoCalGuy]

[split] On its way back to the dealer

My first public charging experience (from last weekend). I think all Walgreens now have at least one level 2 charging station operated by ChargePoint. If you're not a ChargePoint member, you can just tap your AMEX or MasterCard on the actual station. Pretty neat!

 

[tyler]

this thread is really making me wish Oklahoma had charging stations anywhere other than my house!

 

[ct-fiskerbuzz]

this thread is really making me wish Oklahoma had charging stations anywhere other than my house!

Utah is the same way... :blush:

 

[Deep Ocean]

SoCalGuy, did you tint all windows or just the backs?

 

[SoCalGuy]

SoCalGuy, did you tint all windows or just the backs?

In the picture above, none of the windows have tint. I'm going to do all windows with the 3M Crystalline tint - it basically blocks ALL (ok, 99.9%) of UV rays (SPF 1700 rating) and a good portion of infrared/heat as well (depending on darkness, 20-60%). This I think will not only save me from 'driver's burn' but also preserve the leather and keep the interior cooler (battery included) when parked outside on a hot day. Plus, the tint has a lifetime warranty.

 

[EV Driver]

charging behind a Karma at fisker hq

 

[SoCalGuy]

Public charging stations in the US (2012)

Source: http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2012/04/02/wheels-of-tomorrow-electrics/

 

[Sportsmeddoc]

Blink app- luckily was able to get Blink to add 3 charging stations to my office parking lot subsidized by the EV Project- free charging - have used 5 gal gas in last 8 weeks- pushing 265 mi/gal after 800 mi- we'll see if that holds up