Free DC Fast Charging Doesn't Suck -- Unless You are Paid by Qmerit to Promote Home Charging

Tsingtao

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https://insideevs.com/features/645302/free-electric-vehicle-charging-sucks/

I like some of Mr. M's videos -- especially the one in which he provides excellent instructions for charging my Taycan! But this paid-opinion-piece is too much to bear. Personally, I find Porsche's free DC fast charging a nice perk of ownership. But contrary to Mr. M's supposition, it had absolutely nothing to do with my decision to buy an EV. And I suspect that fewer than 1% of EV owners would actually forego the convenience of charging their vehicles at home in order to save a few pennies at a free DC "fast" charger. (Unless you work the drive-thru at McDonald's, your time is probably worth a whole lot more than a few free kilowatts.) If Mr. M. really wanted to help ease congestion at DC fast chargers, he and his ilk could stop charging Ford F150 Lightnings with 131 KwH batteries at public charging stations. You could charge three Taycans to 80% in about the same amount of time it takes Tom to charge his F150 pick-up to 90%.
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daveo4EV

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DC fast charging is _NOT_ "FREE" - it's included in the price of admission - and it's only free if you don't value your time to get to a charger, spend time at the charger, and time to get back home from the charger.

it's essential for road trips, but for daily use I would not consider it free - it's a shiny distraction no doubt, but honestly people over value it.
 

kort

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I haven't had to pay for charging for many years, since 2014, I was early tesla owner and now a taycan owner. when I do use my IPace and have to pay for the charge I find it annoying.
it is a nice perk of the car and is important enough that a few manufacturers offer free charging like porsche does.
 

tchavei

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It is a nice perk of the car and is important enough that a few manufacturers offer free charging like porsche does.
... In the USA

In Europe you get a discount at Ionity for 3 years meaning you'll pay the Kwh (at 0.39€) and not the additional per minute charge.

No freebie for Europe.
 

Raphie

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Yes Europe DC charging gets crazy expensive, the “free” destination charging narrative (charge your Porsche for free at top destinations) has quietly been killed as well.
DC tariffs are now 75c/kW+
The Porsche card is “good” for Ionity, but a ripoff for everything else, it basically doubles any tariff compared to other charging passes, due to the timebased rate on top. Even without the timebased rip off, the tariffs are not competitive. Fools money….
I know why the love you to set the automatic charging, you then no longer need to swipe a dongle and they get these extortion tariffs. In the Netherlands is worthwhile having 3 or 4 charge cards and compare which one to swipe as you can save as much as 50% on your charge.
 


Scandinavian

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Yes Europe DC charging gets crazy expensive, the “free” destination charging narrative (charge your Porsche for free at top destinations) has quietly been killed as well.
DC tariffs are now 75c/kW+
The Porsche card is “good” for Ionity, but a ripoff for everything else, it basically doubles any tariff compared to other charging passes, due to the timebased rate on top. Even without the timebased rip off, the tariffs are not competitive. Fools money….
I know why the love you to set the automatic charging, you then no longer need to swipe a dongle and they get these extortion tariffs. In the Netherlands is worthwhile having 3 or 4 charge cards and compare which one to swipe as you can save as much as 50% on your charge.
If you can plan a drive and only use Ionity, the pricing is quite competitive in my mind. I can see that Netherlands have a much higher kWh pricing ex Ionity than what we have here in France. But you are correct the per minute charge kills that aspect, especially if the charger then throttles and does not deliver the 200 or 300 kW. It then takes even longer and thus costs more. That is unacceptable in my mind.

Oh and that practice at the Porsche dealers is a disgrace. For the Porsche dealers to charge the per minute charge is not a good ambassador role model.

On the aspect of Destination charging, I have used that quite a lot at hotels and some restaurants, and that has worked great. But I guess with the present electricity charges the hotels etc have lost a bit of interest in providing free charging. They got the charger etc, but had to pay the electricity rates them selves as part of the deal. No such thing as a Free lunch!
 

tchavei

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Yes Europe DC charging gets crazy expensive, the “free” destination charging narrative (charge your Porsche for free at top destinations) has quietly been killed as well.
DC tariffs are now 75c/kW+
The Porsche card is “good” for Ionity, but a ripoff for everything else, it basically doubles any tariff compared to other charging passes, due to the timebased rate on top. Even without the timebased rip off, the tariffs are not competitive. Fools money….
I know why the love you to set the automatic charging, you then no longer need to swipe a dongle and they get these extortion tariffs. In the Netherlands is worthwhile having 3 or 4 charge cards and compare which one to swipe as you can save as much as 50% on your charge.
I don't have the car yet and I have subscribed to 9 charge services so far. I have a dedicated wallet for all the cards 😁

Last I checked here, there's up to 75% difference between the cheapest and most costly card at any given time. Well worth having lots of contracts.
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