Free Charging Amenities

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It’s a cool perk and when I first got my car, I would seek out hotels with chargers to stay when traveling. But over the years, in my experience, more and more of those locations are letting their chargers break down and not fix them, or they only have 1-2 and they’re filled before I arrive. Combined with the increased prevalence of superchargers, I no longer seek out hotels with chargers. It’s just a nice bonus if it happens to be there for me when I arrive.

Because most only use Superchargers. I love a free charger

It is a nice little benefit. With some effort it can be really capitalized on, too. Around me there are many free L2 chargers (~7 kW). At Kroger the other day I plugged into the free ChargePoint while I was shopping. There was an F150 plugged in next to me that had over 5 hours on their session. Previously I saw someone park and plug in, and then jump into their wife's car to leave.

I have a free charger at a museum a half mile from my place. I go on a run and get free gas, it's crazy.

>Previously I saw someone park and plug in, and then jump into their wife's car to leave. This paired with 5+ hours sessions should result in a tow or the terminal being shut off.

I still seek out hotels that have charging. I just used one in Baltimore last weekend. I don't expect a spot, but when I do it's a real treat to wake up and have a charged up car. I even preheat before I go to checkout.

I stayed in Baltimore at a hotel with free Tesla destination chargers and paid ChargePoint. I was driving a PHEV at the time, luck for me I had an adapter.

I used to go out of my way to patronize businesses that had free charging, but not as much anymore. Although I appreciate it, the service the business provides is more important to me.

The charge police have arrived.

My lottery winning dream would be to open: Ev oasis’s across the country offering heavily discounted or free lv3 charging (for a membership fee) With a bar and lounge type deal. With all sorts of location specific amenities

> This paired with 5+ hours sessions should result in a tow or the terminal being shut off. Yeah, I kinda agree, but there's no signage on the charger. It's a free public charger in a publicly accessible parking lot.

Switzerland has free charging at their train station parking lots. OP compares it to free gas/diesel, but I see it as society saying thank you for letting them breath a little better air.

It's shipped to be a convenience for patrons, much like parking itself. Limiting the charge sessions is the best method and should be implemented. Limiting charge sessions is a lot nicer than what happens if they catch you parking while not a customer

There needs to signage and a way to set them so it limits sessions to 1 hour. That should be more than enough time for a mall or grocery store stop. Or an emp that could flip the breaker. A few places I visited had a sign that said ask the front reception to turn the charger on so it’s only used for guests and not random drive by’s. Hotels would obviously be different. One hotel gave me a rfid card to tap to activate the charging session, recorded my room number and put a refundable $5 charge once I returned the rfid card. The charge session was free for guests. I told them this one feature would make me stay again with the, if all things were equal against their competitors. They thanked me for the comment.

There’s always people who take advantage trying to save themselves a few bucks. Cheap asses

I love it. I will stay at a hotel but then move my car at 6am since I’m an early riser. For some reason I feel weird keeping on there so long if it’s already been charging overnight. Usually I will bump up my charging to 90 percent as well. Since I rarely stay at hotels. Just giving it an extra boost for driving around.

One of the free chargers that used to exist near me had a timer that would just stop after 45 minutes.

It’s great when it works. That said the more you try to use free charging sites the more you will find out exactly what it’s free in the first place. Many of those chargers are broken, always in-use or just constantly abused. I remember renting a Model X Plaid off Turo a few years ago and th guy had me pickup/dropoff the car at a local Marriott. He was abusing their free charging perk to recharge his Turo rentals.. and hogging up all the charging spots. I’ve noticed the same sort of bad behavior at office sites. Someone without a home charger will buy an EV, because they can hog the charger at work and their EV is plugged in all day, everyday. Nobody else gets to use it. While I would certainly book at hotel with free EV charging. I wouldn’t depend on being able to actually use it. If it’s paid, but cheaply priced (20 cents per kWh) then I would think I have a better chance of it actually being available.

I don't know about most. What's the data source on that?

I used to have a great setup where I would park at a Comcast building (that promoted having free charging for anyone when it was installed) then walk to the movie theater next door and watch a double feature.  Now I occasionally get a brief free charge at the Tanger outlets near me (most have it).

You wouldn't believe how many newer Tesla owners don't even know third party charging exists. I've read it multiple times in the subs

I always try to stay at hotels with free charging but delivery for our new MX is next week and with the luxe package and free supercharging, I may not have to anymore.

Okay, so anecdotal evidence weighted by confirmation bias. I think I read that one in 'this is my impression of things' magazine.

over the summer i stay at a hotel in Fl that is 85 a night with 6 free chargers out front. Crazy man

They're are hotel booking websites that allow you to filter for hotels that have car chargers. I won't book a hotel that does not have one anymore if I'm driving there

Once self driving can be unsupervised that's prob a great idea.

Exactly my thoughts. Why do you have an F-150 Lightning and then try and save $5 by hogging a charger all day? I was the a little over an hour, got 7.5 kWh, which at home would have been $1.13.

Some of the lighting owners power stuff at home off the truck. Used to have a guy at work who lived 2 miles away but always had his truck on the charger. Anything to save a penny

Firstly, who asked you for all of this digression?! We are talking about FREE CHARGING. *insert relevant chatter in response to OP's topic Fish*

If there's an option to book a hotel that has free charging when I'm traveling, I will. Even if my rental car is gas, I'll still book it just to support them.