I charged my car for the second time publicly yesterday. The first was at SF Zoo last weekend. Level 2, super quick, great and free!
Yesterday was at a local community center where you have to pay.
I didn’t really understand the kwh stuff and didn’t want to work out what the cost would be so I plugged it and let it charge.
It charged all fine but I was amazed at the cost. It was basically $4 to charge as I had to take the charger out after 5 mins and move the car a little closer so I had two transactions totaling $4.
Where’s the savings in this?
This won’t be my home rate right?
That’s the price of a gallon of gas so wasn’t too happy with that...
Obviously using only free chargers is key but not always possible.
What do you do? Just drive and charge at home? What about on road trips? Always nice to get the electric range but not at $4 for 33 miles?
I skip the public chargers unless they are free. The pay chargers generally cost more than the equivalent amount of gas would cost per mile.
Your results at home will be entirely dependent on your electric utility rates. Here in Phoenix I pay about 7 cents per kilowatt hour during off peak hours. That works out to about 93 cents for a full charge which is about a third the price of an equivalent amount of gas (currently about $2.60). I believe electric rates in California are much higher. Check if your utility offers time of use rates. They are often quite a bit cheaper during off peak hours.
Apparently my rates are $0.33c per KWH? WTF...I've just learned about the EV Rate through our electric provider. All household applainces + my Pachy are now on the $0.15c KWH. Thats better for sure but it does change my off peak/on peak so just need to train the wife then we should be all good.
Still, the pacifica is 16 kwh battery right? So $0.15c X 16 kWh = $2.40c for 33 miles. I do tend to get 35 miles from the pachy so far and a gallon a gas is nearer to $4 here so good savings I guess. although I did expect more.
In my opinion, home rates are usually cheaper than the rates charged by the public chargers. However, that depends a lot on where you live! In addition to local utility rates, state laws may regulate how public chargers work (free, charge by KwH, charge by time connected, etc.).
I am in Georgia and have time-of-use rates for my home electricity, which my utility provider says ranges from $0.02/KwH in the middle of the night to $0.20/KwH in the afternoon during the summer... that ranges from $0.27 to $2.72 to to charge 13.6KwH.
I can't make the round trip to work on a single charge, but the EVSE at work charges by the hour and it's $2/hr for the first two, then $20/hr afterwards because they want you to move your car and free it up... so it's at least $4.00 to fully charge there. I usually just drive home on gasoline since it's significantly cheaper (plus refilling the tank every 6-8 weeks means I never get the "fuel and oil refresh" mode that makes the PacHy drive on gas even if the battery is charged).
It's not really discharging all the way when the battery says 0%... just like it isn't charging all the way when it says 100%. The 13.6 KwH that I used in my calculations was from some other early adopters who have installed a charger that tracks their usage.
And while you're using gasoline, it's regenerating some charge back to the battery every time you brake (like most other hybrids)... but it may use that stored energy to boost the gas engine, so it rarely shows as an increase in the battery's percent stored.
I only use public chargers if its free or cost no more that a gallon of gas. In hybrid mode I get approximately 32 mpg and some places charges 99c per hour so that is still relatively cheaper than gas if I can get a full charge in two hours. However, I have yet to find a public charger that can fully charge the van in that two hour time frame which means gas normally comes out cheaper.
"For discharge, when driving, I can I stop using the battery? I can’t right? It discharges to 0 every time I use car most days as I drive over 30 miles daily. "
Yes, the battery depletes first and then the ICE engine kicks on. Even then though, with regenerative breaking, you get back some electric, not much but some. Personally, I almost always drive with the gear in low to maximize regenerative breaking, I seldom use the break. Doing that though can create problems for drivers to your rear that get too close, because low gear slows you down fast once you take your foot off the gas, and there is no warning break light for the car at your rear.
As for battery degradation, history will tell. The more you charge and discharge (Charge Cycles) the battery, the quicker the battery will degrade. I personally don't mind charging mine up all the time, however, I do understand that my battery will likely degrade sooner rather than later. With the built in buffers that stops the battery from being discharged completely and does not charge it to true 100%, I think I'll be mostly okay, I hope.
Thankfully its a hybrid, so no big deal either way.
I got charged over $10 at Disneyland but then the parking location was much better at the charging station. Agree that free is the only sure way to not pay more than gas equivalent. At home I have 17 solar panels so like to think I am producing my own electricity for the pachy!
I have a network of $0.25/hr ChargePoint public charges ($1/hr after 4 hours) in business development 15 min walking distance from my office (Southeastern PA). I just park there, walk to the office, and then take 15 min break to walk back 2-3 hours later. Getting cheap charge and good exercise. Weather permitting...
I consistently see 5.6-5.7 kWh per hour with or without another car on the second port, making my charge cost as low as $0.60 - when I manage to get to the charger at the right time.
I just came back from 2000+ miles long trip from Pennsylvania to Canada and back. There are "Flo" public chargers in many parking lots / garages Canada (Ontario, Quebec) charging $1CAD/hr on top of parking fee. As I was a tourist and needed to stop in those parking places anyway, it worked for me.
So, I signed up for Flo, and loaded $10CAD on it, assuming I may leave some amount for my next trip...
One thing I didn't realize before the trip - Flo and Chargepoint networks have roaming agreement, their systems are interconnected, and I could just use my Chargepoint app to charge at Flo, as long as my phone had data connection (which I did to test how it works - it even flashes the light on Flo station).
On the flip side, I am able to use Flo app on Chargepoint stations back home - allowing me to use remaining money on my Flo account.
I have noticed that Flo stations deliver somewhere between 3 and 5 kWh/hour - making charging there less cost -efficient, although still less expensive than gas.
But what was even better - 2 out of 3 hotels where I stayed allowed me to use my Level 1 EVSE to charge for free.
And some restaurants have free Level 2 chargers - so, overall I got 200+ free miles.
Interesting iam from the gta Toronto area and haven’t paid for charging since I got my 18 limited ehybrid . You might want to try plug in America app . Yes I read that about a couple months ago about ChargePoint and flo agreement .
The three most important things in real estate are location, location, location.
The chargers out there aren't trying to compete with your low residential rates. They're providing a service, and generally a nicer parking spot at the same time.
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Related Threads
?
?
?
?
?
2017+ Chrysler Pacifica Minivan Forums
212.3K posts
32.9K members
Since 2016
We’re a forum community dedicated to Chrysler Pacifica owners & enthusiasts. Come join the discussion about upgrades, towing capacity, reliability, and more!