EV Public Charging Cost
Posted by Max Dunn Tue, 31 Jan 2012 15:58:00 GMT
David Herron asked a question today on LinkedIn about the cost to charge an EV at a public station. For those of you not on LinkedIn, here is the answer.
Currently, most public charging stations are free, but you sometimes need to pay for parking. For instance, when I am in SF, I usually park my Leaf at Pier 27 and pay $15 ($10 at night and weekends) to park. A 2-hour charge costs them about 75 cents in electricity, so it is cheap for them. But, they have 2 spaces reserved for EVs and these are often empty and so overall, they are probably losing money.
A company called 350Green is installing charging stations at Walgreens. Walgreens pays for just part of the cost and 350Green will make revenue by selling charging subscriptions for about $70 a month. Coulomb Technologies is also planning on charging too, at about the same rate.
Why does it cost $70 a month? Well it is expensive to install a charging station. EVs take about $35/month in electricity so a $70 subscription leaves $35 for equipment and profit. A networked charging station costs about $2,000 but installation can be expensive depending on how far the power lines need to run. So figuring another $2,000 for installation means a total cost per charger of $4,000. Most people that buy a monthly subscription probably can’t charge at home (maybe they live in an apartment and park on the street) so they will probably want to plug-in while they are at work. This means there can only be one subscription per charger, which will take about 5-years just to pay for the charger and installation before the company makes any money at all.
do you know who makes an electronic scooter that can go 45 mph plus.? zap?
For a scooter that go 45MPH+, you should look into the Vectrix.
If you are willing to go the motorcycle route, Brammo and Zero Motorcycles make some great electric bikes.