"Drivers Spent Twice The Time At Free DC Chargers Than Paid Ones" - Article

[Tooney]

According to a report from the Department of Energy’s Vehicle Technologies Office, EV drivers stay almost twice as long at "free" DC fast chargers than at the paid ones. That conclusion is based on more than 2.3 million sessions at non-Tesla DC charging stations between June 2020 and June 2023.

As it turns out, the average driver spends 78 minutes per session and gains 40.7 kilowatt-hours of energy at the free DC fast chargers. When they use the paid DC fast chargers, they spend just 42 minutes on average, while receiving a mere 22 kWh of energy.

The data set does not include the Tesla Supercharging network, but Tesla has officially revealed that the average session time (globally we believe) is around 27.5 minutes.

https://insideevs.com/news/699960/data-energy-time-free-paid-dc-charging-difference/

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[Vercingetorix]

When beer is free I go back for seconds and hang around twice as long.

 

[kort]

my experiences are not the same, other than congestion and kw delivery speeds at the free chargers there is little difference in time spent charging

 

[ShiftyWolf]

Thinking the free chargers are slower so people probably stay plugged in while they eat, shop, or walk around.

 

[WasserGKuehlt]

Wow, there must be a lot of Bolt drivers out there..

 

[whitex]

Wow, there must be a lot of Bolt drivers out there..

Or a bunch of people using the free chargers even if they don't actually need a charger, but why not take free energy. This was happening with Tesla at one point. Someone goes to the mall, they plug in their car purely because it was free to charge (saves them a few dollars of home charging), and in some cases provided a parking spot during busy times when parking was not abundant. If free, people are more likely to let charge to higher SoC than they need, simply because they are still eating so why not get some more free juice instead of walking out in the middle of dinner to unplug and move the car.

A related usecase is free charging at work, though it is typically not DC - some people who have this option choose to not charge at home even if they have a charger there, instead they fill up every day at the office for free.

 

[WasserGKuehlt]

Or a bunch of people using the free chargers even if they don't actually need a charger, but why not take free energy. This was happening with Tesla at one point. Someone goes to the mall, they plug in their car purely because it was free to charge (saves them a few dollars of home charging), and in some cases provided a parking spot during busy times when parking was not abundant. If free, people are more likely to let charge to higher SoC than they need, simply because they are still eating so why not get some more free juice instead of walking out in the middle of dinner to unplug and move the car.

A related usecase is free charging at work, though it is typically not DC - some people who have this option choose to not charge at home even if they have a charger there, instead they fill up every day at the office for free.

.. and my purported joke landed with a thud. ?

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