Picnic at one while we change. Nice stroll in a park coming back. Went to a restaurant I’d never go to another time.
A guy at one stop in TX was in a huge Excursion and was walking his dog near the charger, laughed and said "you're going to be here a while." We were in and out before he was. The FUD is extremely strong still. Our drive (CO to North TX) has to be one of the least populated (and anti-EV) drives in America and there was still no range or charge speed anxiety.
With a long trip my preference was to slow charge overnight so as to start the day at >90%, and sometimes we'd also have a single supercharge during the day. The supercharger experience is great - you plug in and it works. When you're done you unplug and continue your journey.
The slow charge experience was less good. In France there are a lot of charging points in car parks, but to actually start charging it involves a load of faf.
1. Slow chargers typically involve using an app or website, so you need to find that, figure out how to tell it which charger you're at, enter your payment details. Hopefully you've got internet access in the underground car park that you've selected.
2. Each provider has a different app or website - they're typically difficult to use and buggy, but each in its own unique way.
3. Slow chargers don't don't come with their own cables, so you need to get your one out of the boot, and put it away again.
4. Stopping charging typically involves navigating the website/app again, hopefully you haven't closed the tab, otherwise it's going to be a pain getting back there.
5. There's no indication on how much it's going to cost until after you've gone through all the trouble. Even then it can be unclear - for example do I need to pay for parking while I'm charging or not?
6. It often costs as much or more than the supercharger - although all the prices I saw were cheaper than the UK.
7. There are typically idle fees, so you might find yourself having to disconnect your car and move it in the middle of the night (assuming you put it on charge in the evening)[^1], or you might find yourself having to rush back to the car in the middle of your sightseeing.
I want to slow charge when I'm parked, because I'm away from the car anyway. My dream slow-charging experience is:
1. Broad availability in any given car park, let me just plug in if I happen to be stopped
2. Streamlined payment process, preferably automatic and through the touchscreen of the car, rather than involving a phone or website. Don't make me enter payment card details - I want something like the apple pay experience, but "Tesla pay".
3. No idling fees so I can change my mind and have a dessert if I fancy without worrying about getting back
I don't care about speed if I'm not waiting. 7kW is more than enough.
[^1]: My trick here is to adjust the charging current in the Tesla app, such that it will take longer to charge. This way I'm never idling, even though I'm taking up a space for the same time anyway.
The chain hotels are used during the week by tradespeople, we will want them to be using electric vans soon.
> 1. Slow chargers typically involve using an app or website, so you need to find that, figure out how to tell it which charger you're at, enter your payment details. Hopefully you've got internet access in the underground car park that you've selected.
Yes, this can be somewhere from mildly to extremely annoying. I have also seen chargers that accept tap to pay credit cards though, no account needed.
> 2. Each provider has a different app or website - they're typically difficult to use and buggy, but each in its own unique way.
Similar in the US, though I wouldnt describe any of the apps as difficult to use or buggy. Usually the most annoying part is creating an account.
> 3. Slow chargers don't don't come with their own cables, so you need to get your one out of the boot, and put it away again.
Never seen this in the US. I dont even know what the cable would be.
> 4. Stopping charging typically involves navigating the website/app again, hopefully you haven't closed the tab, otherwise it's going to be a pain getting back there.
Stopping charging is usually doable from the app, but usually I dont want to stop charging until I am ready to physically disconnect which also stops charging.
> 5. There's no indication on how much it's going to cost until after you've gone through all the trouble. Even then it can be unclear - for example do I need to pay for parking while I'm charging or not?
I dont think I've run into a charger that doesnt display pricing info yet.
> 6. It often costs as much or more than the supercharger - although all the prices I saw were cheaper than the UK.
Wow, that is awful. In general slow (AC) charging in the US is half the price or less of fast (DC) charging. In fact, usually public AC chargers are even cheaper than charging at home (for me, very expensive kwh at home).
> 7. There are typically idle fees, so you might find yourself having to disconnect your car and move it in the middle of the night (assuming you put it on charge in the evening)[^1], or you might find yourself having to rush back to the car in the middle of your sightseeing.
This is annoying but necessary. If chargers let you idle for free, it would be impossible to find an empty space many places. I think the idle fees (usually $1-3/hour in the US) are a reasonable compromise.
The cable I have is like this:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/MENNEKES-36213-c%C3%A2ble-%C3%A9lec...
Then the chargers (and the car) just have a socket - but the sockets have locking pins on both ends. Thanks to your response I now realise that the stopping charging issue is related - the cables are locked in place until you stop. If the charging station provided their own cables all we'd have to do is disconnect from the car to stop charging.
> Wow, that is awful. In general slow (AC) charging in the US is half the price or less of fast (DC) charging. In fact, usually public AC chargers are even cheaper than charging at home (for me, very expensive kwh at home).
That sounds lovely. The cheapest slow charger in France that I used was €0.30/kWh ($0.33/kWh). A typical Tesla supercharger on the autoroute was a comparable ~€0.35/kWh ($0.39/kWh). Still, beats the socks off the £0.56/kWh ($0.75/kWh) I pay at the slow charger near my house.
> This is annoying but necessary. If chargers let you idle for free, it would be impossible to find an empty space many places. I think the idle fees (usually $1-3/hour in the US) are a reasonable compromise.
At home it's £3/hr ($4/hr), so if I charge overnight and don't play games with my charging rate I can easily spend more on idle fees than electricity.
Almost everyone one we stopped at that had a mini-mart/restaurant also had an Ionity or Total station with 8 or 16 bays.