Questions/rant on EV charge stations

[CP]

ChargePoint, Blink, Volta, ?  - these things are driving me nuts.  I can’t seem to get any of them to work. Even some of the free ones need some sort of app/account.   How many apps and how many accounts do you need to reliably charge on the road?

I was out of juice on South Whidbey last week and couldn’t get any of the stations to work.  Even the “free” station in Freeland needed an app that I didn’t have.  Luckily a kind soul let me charge in her garage. 

Any advice short of carrying a generator?  Keep it simple, I'm over 60.

[follow maggie]

All of those companies except Tesla are notorious for their crap not working, but you won’t hear anyone talking about it when they’re pushing electric cars & say you can live & travel normally with them

[Iveexcaped3]

Any advice short of carrying a generator? 

Yes, buy a gas car

[JimmyHoffa]

Eventually only a couple will win out and it will be easy.  Still kind of the wild west days for the EV/charging industry.
Maybe flag the compatible chargers ahead of time.

[Boss .300 winmag]

🤣

[Boss .300 winmag]

Any advice short of carrying a generator? 

Yes, buy a gas car

Can’t get any simpler than that.😉

[netcoyote]

Never hear it discussed but was wondering about charging plug compatibility. Are all EV's using some standard protocol for plug or are they different for different make/model? Since Tesla seemed to be the first out of the gate on this, can any EVs charge at a Tesla charging station?

Inquiring minds...

[GWP]

They really ARE the magic solution to everything! 

[CP]

Never hear it discussed but was wondering about charging plug compatibility. Are all EV's using some standard protocol for plug or are they different for different make/model? Since Tesla seemed to be the first out of the gate on this, can any EVs charge at a Tesla charging station?

Inquiring minds...

No, you have all these plugs.  I can only use the J-1772 or a wall outlet.  Luckily, the J-1772 is the most common.

[CP]

So far, my best solution has been to, well, steal electricity from unguarded wall outlets in public parking lots.

[netcoyote]

So far, my best solution has been to, well, steal electricity from unguarded wall outlets in public parking lots.

So are there adapters that you can use then for standard outlets? There must be different charging rates based on different voltages and adapter types, correct?

[Jingles]

This thread is yet more convincing to stay with gas and diesel

[SuperX]

All of those companies except Tesla are notorious for their crap not working, but you won’t hear anyone talking about it when they’re pushing electric cars & say you can live & travel normally with them

Yeah just like horses... nobody mentions the hay bill when they push their equine agenda!   

[CP]

So far, my best solution has been to, well, steal electricity from unguarded wall outlets in public parking lots.

So are there adapters that you can use then for standard outlets? There must be different charging rates based on different voltages and adapter types, correct?

Yeah, I’m not up on all the variants but there are lots of adaptors out there. 

I have a J-1772 to C13 adaptor.  Charge rate is limited by the on-vehicle charger; so even though I’ve hacked into a level 2 connection, my EV motorcycle only charges at the level 1 rate.  I could upgrade to a level 2 on-board charger but that’s about $3K.

For enough money, I guess anything is possible.

[CP]

Sorry city of Marysville, I owe you about 20 cents worth of electricity.  Let me know where to pay.