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Walmart plans EV Charging network which will blanket the US within a few years

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Re: Walmart plans EV Charging network which will blanket the US within a few years

#91

Post by vel0city »

darknavi wrote: post #49
russell_h wrote: post #21

At least in the Pacific Northwest most Electrify America installations are in Walmart parking lots. These have caused me to spend more time at Walmart the past two years, honestly its a pretty good experience - aside from EA reliability issues, which seem to have improved but still far short of Tesla.

> honestly its a pretty good experience - aside from EA reliability issues, which seem to have improved but still far short of Tesla. Going from the Tesla Supercharger network I can't share this sentiment at all. Virtually every time I charge at an EA station (which is admittedly only a few times a year) there is either random power degradation with no notice or one or many totally dysfunctional stalls. This latest t…

Every time I've used an EA charger there was an open one and all I had to do was just drive up and plug in. The car negotiated payment and it worked fine with reasonable charging rates.

Driving a Mach E around Texas.

Re: Walmart plans EV Charging network which will blanket the US within a few years

#92

Post by floxy »

iwanttocomment wrote: post #50
vel0city wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've driven EVs in the US across several states since 2021 and I've run across several dozen DCFC that accepted nothing but a credit card reader.

You should consider yourself a lucky individual who has had a very different experience than many of us longtime EV drivers have had. (I should note that I have occasionally encountered charging stations that had integrated credit card readers, but they have all been out of service.)

Electrify America doesn't require you to use an app in the Pacific Northwest. You can just pay with a credit card.

Re: Walmart plans EV Charging network which will blanket the US within a few years

#93

Post by cbsmith »

vel0city wrote: post #89
cbsmith wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, but in Texas?

Yeah, I've seen around $0.40/kWh often. Looking around in plugshare I see a lot having around $0.50 in North Texas. DCFC is a good bit more expensive than a L2 charge.

I think I've been misled about the wonders of energy deregulation in Texas.

Re: Walmart plans EV Charging network which will blanket the US within a few years

#94

Post by vel0city »

cbsmith wrote: post #93
vel0city wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, I've seen around $0.40/kWh often. Looking around in plugshare I see a lot having around $0.50 in North Texas. DCFC is a good bit more expensive than a L2 charge.

I think I've been misled about the wonders of energy deregulation in Texas.

This is rates at DCFC. You're paying for far more than just the price of electricity. Those chargers and dispensers aren't free, they're often empty, they need to recoup costs in a few year horizon.

Charging at home it costs me about $0.135/kWh.

Re: Walmart plans EV Charging network which will blanket the US within a few years

#95

Post by Reason077 »

constantcrying wrote: post #32
Reason077 wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Only trouble is, the cars charge too fast now days! An 800V vehicle like the Ioniq 5 can often be topped up in under 15 minutes, barely enough time to buy a coffee and use the restroom, let alone do any grocery shopping! And some charging networks apply idle fees if you don’t move your car quickly when charging completes. Of course, a car can only charge as fast as the charger, so maybe it makes sense (and certainly…

Fast charging degrades the battery. Obviously you will choose a slower charger if you know you will be gone for 45 minutes. Walmart is also unlikely to have these charges, since they obviously do not want people to rush through their stores. (Obviously charges after a couple of hours might be there.)

> "Fast charging degrades the battery."

True, but in practical terms this is not worth worrying about for most of us. Saw a recent article where a Korean driver had done over 600,000km (~ 375,000 miles) in his Ioniq 5 on the original battery. He'd only ever used DC fast chargers, typically charging to 100%!

His battery did fail around the 600,000km mark, but most vehicles never get anywhere close to that sort of mileage. And apparently it still retained 87% of original capacity up until that point.

And despite being far out of warrantly, Hyundai replaced his battery as a goodwill (good publicity!) gesture.

Re: Walmart plans EV Charging network which will blanket the US within a few years

#96

Post by Reason077 »

jayd16 wrote: post #56
Reason077 wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Only trouble is, the cars charge too fast now days! An 800V vehicle like the Ioniq 5 can often be topped up in under 15 minutes, barely enough time to buy a coffee and use the restroom, let alone do any grocery shopping! And some charging networks apply idle fees if you don’t move your car quickly when charging completes. Of course, a car can only charge as fast as the charger, so maybe it makes sense (and certainly…

When do we start jail breaking cars to intentionally charge slowly and avoid fees?

Actually, this is a trick I have used once or twice in the UK while AC charging to avoid idle fees / get cheap overnight parking (shhhhh!).

(Many cars allow you to set a reduced charging speed on AC, but not for DC fast charging, AFAIK)

Re: Walmart plans EV Charging network which will blanket the US within a few years

#97

Post by natch »

tzs wrote: post #75
kposehn wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the app will be for plug-and-charge users, while they'll have credit card readers for everyone else. I do agree that chargers requiring an app are a royal pain. We're an all-EV household and I don't bother with local chargers that don't have readers or support plug-and-charge. There's a lot of Shell chargers in our area that require an app to work and almost no-one uses them because of how clunky it is.

It will likely work for Walmart because as of 2021 the Walmart app had 120 million active monthly users [1]. That's almost half of the US adult population. For all of those people, using the chargers won't require downloading some new clunky app that they only have because of EV charging. It will be that an app they already have and use regularly and already have their payment information adds EV charging to the list…

I don’t know how people get these ideas.

Teslas do not need any app for charging. I mean sure, they do have an app, but no need to even have the app on the phone or with you to charge. No need for a phone or a credit card or a code or a password or a chip or a retina scan or interacting with a screen or tapping a keypad or anything. Just plug the plug into the car at the supercharger and it charges. Or, do it at home, cheaper.

Re: Walmart plans EV Charging network which will blanket the US within a few years

#98

Post by cbsmith »

vel0city wrote: post #94
cbsmith wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think I've been misled about the wonders of energy deregulation in Texas.

This is rates at DCFC. You're paying for far more than just the price of electricity. Those chargers and dispensers aren't free, they're often empty, they need to recoup costs in a few year horizon. Charging at home it costs me about $0.135/kWh.

> This is rates at DCFC. You're paying for far more than just the price of electricity. Those chargers and dispensers aren't free, they're often empty, they need to recoup costs in a few year horizon.

I'm very aware you pay a premium for DCFC. Presumably Texas' regulatory structure would help with all of that.

> Charging at home it costs me about $0.135/kWh.

So you're paying more than I pay to charge at home with my municipally owned and operated power company in California.

Re: Walmart plans EV Charging network which will blanket the US within a few years

#99

Post by vel0city »

cbsmith wrote: post #98
vel0city wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is rates at DCFC. You're paying for far more than just the price of electricity. Those chargers and dispensers aren't free, they're often empty, they need to recoup costs in a few year horizon. Charging at home it costs me about $0.135/kWh.

> This is rates at DCFC. You're paying for far more than just the price of electricity. Those chargers and dispensers aren't free, they're often empty, they need to recoup costs in a few year horizon. I'm very aware you pay a premium for DCFC. Presumably Texas' regulatory structure would help with all of that. > Charging at home it costs me about $0.135/kWh. So you're paying more than I pay to charge at home with my…

Charging companies will charge what they can get away with. FWIW it used to be more like $0.30/kWh.

Most of California pays a rate 2x what I'm paying, which is a pretty typical rate.

Re: Walmart plans EV Charging network which will blanket the US within a few years

#100

Post by cbsmith »

vel0city wrote: post #99
cbsmith wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This is rates at DCFC. You're paying for far more than just the price of electricity. Those chargers and dispensers aren't free, they're often empty, they need to recoup costs in a few year horizon. I'm very aware you pay a premium for DCFC. Presumably Texas' regulatory structure would help with all of that. > Charging at home it costs me about $0.135/kWh. So you're paying more than I pay to charge at home with my…

Charging companies will charge what they can get away with. FWIW it used to be more like $0.30/kWh. Most of California pays a rate 2x what I'm paying, which is a pretty typical rate.

> Charging companies will charge what they can get away with. FWIW it used to be more like $0.30/kWh.

Yup, and they can charge a premium for fast charging, because it is really convenient when you need it.

> Most of California pays a rate 2x what I'm paying, which is a pretty typical rate.

Yeah, all the private companies in California charge a fortune for power. It's ironic that the municipal services are so much more cost effective.

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