Charging rant. Shell Recharge

[Space_Pony]

On a 2500 mile round-trip from Orlando to Texas, heading to Dallas, I needed a ‘safety’ charge, and stopped at a Shell Recharge, approx. 100 miles east of Dallas on I-20.

i will tell you this…I will never, ever stop at, or even consider a Shell Recharge again!?

Over-priced to the point of ‘price-gouging’ ($.98kwh and wanted a $3 flat-charging fee’!

I ‘risked it’, and did not charge there, and made it to the next charge location(Tesla SCs), approx. 85 miles further, with 10% to spare?

Shell Recharge…Never again!

The first thing I do when using Plugshare is check the price. It would be great if you could confirm or post the price when checking in like Gasbuddy.

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[ChehRob]

If the electric supply is good, if the location is even so-so good, then new hard/software would be really quick and easy. Likely cheap to do. Is there any reason this is not so?

 

[dbsb3233]

If the electric supply is good, if the location is even so-so good, then new hard/software would be really quick and easy. Likely cheap to do. Is there any reason this is not so?

High kW chargers are usually expensive. Like $80k-$200k expensive. At least as of a couple of years ago when I saw some price quotes.

Tesla has gotten costs for theirs down a lot, but most others have been quite expensive. Hopefully hardware costs come down a lot with more volume, but it's a slog.

 

[ChehRob]

High kW chargers are usually expensive. Like $80k-$200k expensive. At least as of a couple of years ago when I saw some price quotes.

Tesla has gotten costs for theirs down a lot, but most others have been quite expensive. Hopefully hardware costs come down a lot with more volume, but it's a slog.

The electric power infrastructure, and location eat up much/most of that cost, as I understand.

 

[RickMachE]

On a 2500 mile round-trip from Orlando to Texas, heading to Dallas, I needed a ‘safety’ charge, and stopped at a Shell Recharge, approx. 100 miles east of Dallas on I-20.

i will tell you this…I will never, ever stop at, or even consider a Shell Recharge again!?

Over-priced to the point of ‘price-gouging’ ($.98kwh and wanted a $3 flat-charging fee’!

I ‘risked it’, and did not charge there, and made it to the next charge location(Tesla SCs), approx. 85 miles further, with 10% to spare?

Shell Recharge…Never again!

The first thing I do when using Plugshare is check the price. It would be great if you could confirm or post the price when checking in like Gasbuddy.

Price should never be a surprise, since it's available online to review ahead of time....

GasBuddy is great, except when people type in the wrong numbers.

 

[dbsb3233]

The electric power infrastructure, and location eat up much/most of that cost, as I understand.

Part of it but from what I've read the hardware itself is still a big chunk of it. It's hard to find solid numbers on commercial equipment though. I see prices on some Chargepoint units (probably because they sell the hardware to hosts). A CP250 (dual 62.5 kW) shows as $45k. And that's for what we now consider inadequate power level. Most people consider 150kW the reasonable minimum now, and that price jumps a lot.

I've seen $5000 mentioned just for the cost of a liquid-cooled cable replacement when vandals cut them. I don't know how accurate that all is, just bits and pieces mentioned online.

 

[Jgg181]

Price should never be a surprise, since it's available online to review ahead of time....

GasBuddy is great, except when people type in the wrong numbers.

 

[RickMachE]

And again, WHO sets the prices?

EA - EA
Tesla Superchargers - Tesla
Shell Recharge, ChargePoint - owner of charger

 

[Jgg181]

At the time of my summer trip, referenced earlier, I was unaware of all the charging apps available.

So my ‘handicap’ was I only had the ElectrifyAmerica app, and Tesla app, and at that time, was not totally familiar with either, other than ‘location’ availabilty info.

Reading on this forum and other Charger info. sources, I eventually learned of at least 4 additional charging apps available, including PlugShare, and they all were constantly evolving what info. they could supply.

Based on my experience this past summer, I can definitely understand how ‘trying’ it is for all ’new’ EV owners, even those who are not normally technically challenged.

it is the ‘cusp-of-change’ syndrome we all face when we decide to step up and step out of the ‘norm’.

 

[bbulkow]

My experience with shell recharge has also been crap. Evil or incompetent? Oil companies certainly profit by having bad charging networks and making people think electric will never work. I generally go with incompetent, but.... ?

I have also traveled to cities that i thought would have better charging infra and been sorely surprised. Now i prefer to drive a little farther to a station that certainly works instead of faffing around with a station with two chargers that might not work..

It looks like des moines had two compatible Tesla stations, and one incompatible. Also has a couple of larger EA stations which are probably ok, and seem to be closer to you if you are near the incompatible Tesla station.

I set the plugshare filters to 4 stations minimum, 8 plugscore minimum.

Since you are there for a longer haul it seems, you might find a nearby l2 (near me there is one at a school about 5 minutes walk) and leave it there overnight or all day. You could also look for neighbors with evs and make friends. These worked for me before i got my own home charger.

 

[ipca204]

I LOVE my Shell chargers in my area because they are all free! (midwest IL)

 

[Space_Pony]

I LOVE my Shell chargers in my area because they are all free! (midwest IL)

I've been through IL a few times and never found free Shell DCFC stations.
Are these free chargers, L3 or L2?
L2 chargers are no good if you're traveling away from home.

 

[ipca204]

I've been through IL a few times and never found free Shell DCFC stations.
Are these free chargers, L3 or L2?
L2 chargers are no good if you're traveling away from home.

Level 2. We have them by Kohls, Aldi, AMC movie theaters, Walgreens, Amazon Fresh, etc. They only add about 9-10% an hour depending on state of charge but as I can literally walk to work from about 8 of them, it is very handy! Nice to go to a movie and come out with an extra 40% too!

 

[T18C97]

It's a V2 then. Only V3s and the V4s (when available) are compatible with the CCS cars.

Not all V3 and V4 locations are open to non-Tesla cars. It's always best to use the Tesla app to find the compatible chargers.

 

[Space_Pony]

Level 2. We have them by Kohls, Aldi, AMC movie theaters, Walgreens, Amazon Fresh, etc. They only add about 9-10% an hour depending on state of charge but as I can literally walk to work from about 8 of them, it is very handy! Nice to go to a movie and come out with an extra 40% too!

I don't usually stop to see a movie or go shopping when I'm traveling 500 miles.
This thread was referring to DCFC chargers and road trips. We charge at home for local trips.

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