Okay - supposedly - the driving/riding arrangements for EV recharging will be we have a charger installed at home, and our employer will have one, and we can drive back and forth covering the majority of our driving needs with recharging facilities. But that only works if the employer is willing to have us use "their" electricity to recharge "our" car. I'm curious how everyone is handling recharging issues? Specifically permission for recharging.
Found this article today from Germany
Man fired for charging scooter with employer's electricity
http://www.thelocal.de/national/20100901-29557.html
You can sort of understand the predicament. Employer provided recharging can be seen as a perk that other employees don't get, and therefore some might want to account for it or something appropriately.
I wrote an article a couple months ago about a similar predicament - Should employers pay for recharging employee-owned electric cars? - A guy in ?Modesto? who had built his own electric car, had been driving it to work, but the employer (prison system) put a stop to that because they didn't have a way to charge him the money to pay for the electricity.
FWIW - my current employer (Yahoo) and previous one (Sun) both had EV charging spots in the parking lot and saw the perk as a way to encourage employees to do the right thing, and also get some green credibility.
Hey, wouldn't it be just perfect to give those high pollution companies smog credits for having these charging stations for the employees, or for sponsoring them around town?
Didn't have anything to charge myself back then, but I remember there were city buildings, corporate offices, malls, etc. with free charging stations all over the place, maybe 10-15 years ago. The train station near my house had several that are no longer operational but still sit there, don't know what happened to the others. If you could sell ad space on the front of the charger, would you make enough to pay for the electricity?
I also recall some of the problems. One guy plugs in his car, another comes along 15 minutes later and unplugs it to plug HIS in. If the first guy came back and took it, the second would be OUTRAGED. People will always be people. I read something posted on one that said something about not unplugging someone else's until it was at 85% charge because of potential damage to his system. Right, like they really care about SOMEONE ELSE. It wouldn't have surprised me if every single free charging station had ceased to exist for all this alone. But apparently not. My point being, a lot of people won't have to charge right there at work. I love reading about the one hour station.
California Charging Station Numbers Grow This one has some great links.
5,000 Free Electric Car Charging Stations from California to New York
You know what? A manufacturer could set up free charging for their car ONLY, with a special plug in addition to the standard one, so if you had one of theirs you could hook up.
First (??) Public Charging Station for Electric Cars
They can't ALL be first: First (??) Public-Use Electric Vehicle Quick-Charge Station Opens in Portland, Ore.
WHo dares, WINS!!!!
This article brings out a very interesting point about the future of electric vehicles. Currently, I am a driver who charges my electric vehicle (Xtreme XB-500) at home, and also at work. My one-way commute is 10.4 miles, which is just over the range of my bike to make a round trip, especially if I push my speed to the limit.
From the onset, I was honest with my employer, explaining that a full charge on my bike would cost about 6 cents, and that I hoped that I wouldn't have to jump through hoops for him to allow me to charge at work. Also, it turns out that my employer has a motorcycle parking pad in front of the facility, and on that pad, there is a 110Volt outlet. I count myself lucky for the fact that the boss is an eco-friendly type. (I can't imagine a Chrysler employee getting this perk.)
This article, and some of the replies, points out that at some point, there will be competition for the available electrical outlets that are convenient to parking spaces, and certainly there will be some instances of "recharging rage" as people unplug other's cars to make way for their own. I certainly hope that, moving forward, we, as EV users, develop a respect for each other, and don't engage in this type of behavior.
We also need to push for public enlightenment about the actual cost of electricity. I'm sure that if my employer thought the cost of rechrarging my bike was equivalent to the cost of driving an SUV 10 miles, he would have second thoughts about offering this perk to his employees.
Dickey_b
Waste Not, Want Not
It's usually the last to the party that don't want to play nice, eh?
Access to charging is a major reason getting 1=2% onto electricity is a major hurtle. For the whole company to be able to chrage, the entire parking lot would have to be wired. Some will live close enough they won't need to, but if it's FREE, they'll want a piece of that action. It's going to be a long, slow trip.
WHo dares, WINS!!!!