I was recently on a trip up to Canada and had a new charging experience… one that charged by the hour actually. It was a ChargerQuest station (yet another different company, one I’d yet to use) that was located at our hotel. They were very simple to use, scan the QR Code with your phone and use the browser or download an app to charge. No account required if using the browser, just enter a card, or use ApplePay or Google Wallet, and you’re all set. I charged for the first couple hours after we got there while we went to dinner (we took an Uber anyways so we could have a few drinks and not worry about driving), and after we got back I unplugged, and this initial charging session cost me $22.05 Canadian (about $16.37 after exchange). The next morning I ran to the store and to grab some breakfast, and since we had a little bit of a drive in the afternoon I topped up my battery while we were eating, and this next one cost me $10.14 CAD ($7.53 after exchange). Total cost of charging for this trip was $32.19 CAD ($23.90 USD).
Comparing this to last summer’s Electrify/Flo bills which hovered around $15 CAD for about the same percentage of charge using DCFC stations, you can tell that this is marked for convenience for sure. There were other options around, but this gave me the ability to park, go into the hotel and do what I needed, and have a car that’s ready to go before leaving.
I didn’t charge again after that as we truthfully were only about 120 miles from home, so even a 60% battery would’ve been fine, so that was the extent of my charging cost for this trip. In my old vehicle that would have likely been about a full tank of gas, maybe a little more as it only got 250 miles out of its 13 gallon tank, which is still sitting at $5.82/gallon up in the ‘Great White North’ and would have cost me about $75 CAD to fill. Even at an expensive charger, that works out to be a little over $40 savings on fueling that trip, which is fine by me!
Roving On 