On July 20, 2014 at 18:01, Mario said...
Does anyone know how the free charging stations get financed/paid for?
Is there a federal program that pays for this?
I don't know but from what I have read I think it is mostly financed by the car companies (like Tesla) and the locations (where the pump is situated. Here the pumps are a paid service (2.50$ a charge no matter how long you leave the car or how much power it needs while it is plugged) and it is hydro-Quebec (the power company) as well as locations (like Fin said there is a benefit to the locations bottom line if you go there and stay there for a long time.
Is this a loan/lease that has finite number of months/years before the model becomes a paid service?
I would guess yes but never read anything about it with any time frame. I see it more as a way to get the infrastructure in place in order to make EVs more interesting. It is like anything else for example why buy a 4K TV when there is no 4k content to watch on it? why release 4k content when almost no one has a 4K TV to watch it on?
I'm trying to picture how this charging in town would work for me or my wife.
I can see if the stations were available at the mall, grocery store or book store.
In my town, all but the 1 Latitudes location are not not a destination location, so if it takes 30-45min to get a quick charge, what do people do while they wait?
Time is money, and if I had to dedicate an hour (30-40min charge + short drive time) each day to top off my batteries at a conservative $20/hr, that would be more than $100 per week in wasted productivity.
Mathematically, this just doesn't add up for me.
Now, if that Tesla model S can go 250+ miles on a single charge, then I would only have to charge the car at home at the end of the day (overnight) and that would make more sense.
for many people it does not add up, that is the reality of the situation, and it won't for some time and maybe never.
I see these stations more as a convenience than anything else (i.e. if the car can go 100 miles and that is good enough most days Joe won't be screwed the day he needs to go 120 miles if he can charge it that day at such a station). The idea is that you mostly charge at home and that is why I don't see the "free charge stations" as a big deal as some others did earlier. The reality is that if the car is charged at home and then topped off at the charging station while you are there anyways the car probably uses very little electricity at that secondary location.
