Is charging the eGolf at ChargePoint locations free?

Is charging the eGolf at ChargePoint locations free if you live in the Bay Area? If not, are there any public places around the Bay Area (not counting office locations) where you can charge your car for free?

Why do you believe you should be able to recharge for free? Electricity costs money. Maintaining EVSE's costs money. Driving a car is a privilege. That privilege comes with a price per mile. You can bet if it's free in San Francisco, every mooch around will have already found it and you'll be waiting in line for hours for your freebie. Not a very good use of time for $3.00 worth of electricity that will get you 70 -80 miles down the road.

Gasoline and diesel fuel should be free too, right? It just flows out of the ground all on it's own, refines itself, and ends up at the pump, free for the taking. What is wrong with this thought process, apply it to electricity too. Your local dealer will give you the first couple of hits of heroin free too. How does that work out? You become dependent, instead of independent.

saintforlife said:

Is charging the eGolf at ChargePoint locations free if you live in the Bay Area? If not, are there any public places around the Bay Area (not counting office locations) where you can charge your car for free?

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Most free places are crowded. Malls usually have them.
I don't know too much about the SF area as I am in SoCal, but just an FYI.

Go to Plugshare.com and lookup local charging stations and it can tell you if it is free.

forbin404 said:

saintforlife said:

Is charging the eGolf at ChargePoint locations free if you live in the Bay Area? If not, are there any public places around the Bay Area (not counting office locations) where you can charge your car for free?

Click to expand...

Most free places are crowded. Malls usually have them.
I don't know too much about the SF area as I am in SoCal, but just an FYI.

Go to Plugshare.com and lookup local charging stations and it can tell you if it is free.

Click to expand...

Thanks. I just remembered reading somewhere that certain stations might be free. Since I'm new to this whole electric car business, I thought I'd ask.

saintforlife said:

forbin404 said:

saintforlife said:

Is charging the eGolf at ChargePoint locations free if you live in the Bay Area? If not, are there any public places around the Bay Area (not counting office locations) where you can charge your car for free?

Click to expand...

Most free places are crowded. Malls usually have them.
I don't know too much about the SF area as I am in SoCal, but just an FYI.

Go to Plugshare.com and lookup local charging stations and it can tell you if it is free.

Click to expand...

Thanks. I just remembered reading somewhere that certain stations might be free. Since I'm new to this whole electric car business, I thought I'd ask.

Click to expand...

Since you are new to it, how about you ask "How do I set up where I live to recharge my new e-Golf, before I go and buy one." Or how about "where can I fill up?" Instead of asking if it's free.

JoulesThief said:

Why do you believe you should be able to recharge for free? Electricity costs money. Maintaining EVSE's costs money. Driving a car is a privilege. That privilege comes with a price per mile. You can bet if it's free in San Francisco, every mooch around will have already found it and you'll be waiting in line for hours for your freebie. Not a very good use of time for $3.00 worth of electricity that will get you 70 -80 miles down the road.

Gasoline and diesel fuel should be free too, right? It just flows out of the ground all on it's own, refines itself, and ends up at the pump, free for the taking. What is wrong with this thought process, apply it to electricity too. Your local dealer will give you the first couple of hits of heroin free too. How does that work out? You become dependent, instead of independent.

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Umm, where did this come from? Sounds like "saintfolife" bought/leased an eGolf because Saint liked it, like the rest of us did. Don't assume that Saint bought it expecting to be given free electricity at every public charging station. It turns out that some businesses *do* offer free charging - what on earth is wrong with seeking out those places and taking advantage of it, if it's freely given?

saintforlife said:

Is charging the eGolf at ChargePoint locations free if you live in the Bay Area? If not, are there any public places around the Bay Area (not counting office locations) where you can charge your car for free?

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Places I have charged at that are free:

Target in Fremont
Downtown Palo Alto
College of San Mateo

Down here in San Diego all of the Chargepoints have been free. I also found an eVgo that was free because it was in a Kohl's parking lot, so you might want to check out Kohl's in your area. DMV, CHP, and public libraries have free charging, too.

The Bay Area is a large area to cover. You might want to be more specific about where you are looking for free charging.

There are Volta stations at various shopping centers in the Bay Area - look for them on the volta website.

To clarify, in Palo Alto, all government buildings currently have free charging (parking garages, libraries, etc.). Facebook even has free DC charging (after hours) and so do some BMW and VW dealers. The VW of America (in Belmont) office building also has a free 50kW station.

Free is nice, and it's great that governments and businesses offer free electricity, but there are many places that have very reasonable per kWh costs as well.

The parking spot at home in my garage is always convenient, always available, costs about $0.17 a kw, I plug in, I go inside, do what ever I please, and in 2.5 to 3 hours and 17-19 kw later after having driven 90-98 miles at 5.5 to 6.2 miles per kwh, it's ready for more driving. Well worth it to me to pay $3 at home to have 3 hours of free time to do anything else, instead of sitting at a public free recharger with a 2 hour time limit, grubbing and mooching electrons. Life is too short to sit around, waiting to get to an EVSE that's free, and then waiting some more while your car gets a few free electrons.

BTW, that is is with a full 240V 30A EVSE that is on a Delta transformer on residential electricity. EVSE's in public are generally on 208V.
This is with a 7.2 kwh charger on board a 2015 SEL. The 2016 SE comes standard with the twice as slow 3.6 kwh charger, and that's again at 240V. Most commercial and free chargers are on 208V, another 18% slower again, worth about 3.1 kw per hour of recharging. 7 or 8 hours for a full charge, if you are really low.

f1geek said:

The Bay Area is a large area to cover. You might want to be more specific about where you are looking for free charging.

There are Volta stations at various shopping centers in the Bay Area - look for them on the volta website.

To clarify, in Palo Alto, all government buildings currently have free charging (parking garages, libraries, etc.). Facebook even has free DC charging (after hours) and so do some BMW and VW dealers. The VW of America (in Belmont) office building also has a free 50kW station.

Free is nice, and it's great that governments and businesses offer free electricity, but there are many places that have very reasonable per kWh costs as well.

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Thanks. I will check out the Volta website. We spend most of our time in the South Bay: Sunnyvale, Santa Clara, San Jose and Milpitas area.

I don't know why some in this thread have a hard time just answering the original question...

The ChargePoint app tells you whether a charger is free or paid. You should be able to search around the areas you go to and find out before you travel.
FWIW, I used a ChargePoint at Logan Airport in Boston last weekend and it was free (once you'd paid the high price of airport parking).

GadgetGav said:

I don't know why some in this thread have a hard time just answering the original question...

The ChargePoint app tells you whether a charger is free or paid. You should be able to search around the areas you go to and find out before you travel.
FWIW, I used a ChargePoint at Logan Airport in Boston last weekend and it was free (once you'd paid the high price of airport parking).

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Gee, you think when VW gives you a chargepoint card, you'd be able to load the chargepoint app and figure it out yourself? Gotta help yourself. When I first got my e-Golf, I asked folks waiting behind me to charge to learn how they did it. Both of us had the time to discuss.

GadgetGav said:

The ChargePoint app tells you whether a charger is free or paid.

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A point to consider is that the app has reported that a charge station is free even though it's not (and even indicated station that existed that do not).

I would not rely on the app for a critical charge need without visual confirmation (or whatever level you are comfortable). I try to check out spots I think I might need when I'm in the diesel and read the comments other users post.

bizzle said:

A point to consider is that the app has reported that a charge station is free even though it's not (and even indicated station that existed that do not).

I would not rely on the app for a critical charge need without visual confirmation (or whatever level you are comfortable). I try to check out spots I think I might need when I'm in the diesel and read the comments other users post.

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Sure, the app might not be 100% reliable, but it will at least show the OP where to go and look for potential free charging without
a lecture on the morality of using free chargers where they're available.

JoulesThief said:

Why do you believe you should be able to recharge for free? Electricity costs money. Maintaining EVSE's costs money. Driving a car is a privilege. That privilege comes with a price per mile. You can bet if it's free in San Francisco, every mooch around will have already found it and you'll be waiting in line for hours for your freebie. Not a very good use of time for $3.00 worth of electricity that will get you 70 -80 miles down the road.

Gasoline and diesel fuel should be free too, right? It just flows out of the ground all on it's own, refines itself, and ends up at the pump, free for the taking. What is wrong with this thought process, apply it to electricity too. Your local dealer will give you the first couple of hits of heroin free too. How does that work out? You become dependent, instead of independent.

Click to expand...

Dude, chill out. No reason to get pretentious over here. Many of us are new to the EV lifestyle, and for what it's worth many dealers simply lie to people and tell them "Oh you are getting a chargepoint card so you can fill up for free at any chargepoint station." Which is what my dealer said to me. I ran a quick Google search while at the dealer and found this is not true.

Maybe next time you should offer useful information to other users on this forum instead of berating them for asking a simple question.

SJCyclist said:

JoulesThief said:

Why do you believe you should be able to recharge for free? Electricity costs money. Maintaining EVSE's costs money. Driving a car is a privilege. That privilege comes with a price per mile. You can bet if it's free in San Francisco, every mooch around will have already found it and you'll be waiting in line for hours for your freebie. Not a very good use of time for $3.00 worth of electricity that will get you 70 -80 miles down the road.

Gasoline and diesel fuel should be free too, right? It just flows out of the ground all on it's own, refines itself, and ends up at the pump, free for the taking. What is wrong with this thought process, apply it to electricity too. Your local dealer will give you the first couple of hits of heroin free too. How does that work out? You become dependent, instead of independent.

Click to expand...

Dude, chill out. No reason to get pretentious over here. Many of us are new to the EV lifestyle, and for what it's worth many dealers simply lie to people and tell them "Oh you are getting a chargepoint card so you can fill up for free at any chargepoint station." Which is what my dealer said to me. I ran a quick Google search while at the dealer and found this is not true.

Maybe next time you should offer useful information to other users on this forum instead of berating them for asking a simple question.

Click to expand...

Here's a lesson in life... non human powered transportation energy is not free, will not be free, and has never been free. Someone pays for it. Buying an electric car and being dependent on mooching electricity to fill it up is a huge waste of resources, mileage and time, trying to scrounge electrons. It's like waiting in a food line, except if you can afford an electric car, you aren't that poor or that needy.

A better solution is to install a EVSE at home for recharging your electric car BEFORE you buy your electric car. It's up to you to provide the elecrical source, in conjunction with your utility company selling you the electricity to recharge, or providing your own solar panels to do the job. Be a good boy scout, be prepared, BEFORE you buy your first electric car. Don't be ignorant and put the cart before the horse. Have a EVSE installed first, before you buy your e-Golf.

Maybe you should go get some free nutrition for powering yourself while riding your bike around. Let us know how that works out.

SJCyclist said:

dealers simply lie to people and tell them "Oh you are getting a chargepoint card so you can fill up for free at any chargepoint station." Which is what my dealer said to me. I ran a quick Google search while at the dealer and found this is not true.

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In fairness to Mr. Dealer, the phrase "free to use" appears in the 2014 press announcement.

Every e-Golf will come with a ChargePoint membership card in the car at no additional cost, giving owners far greater opportunities to charge their cars while on the go. About 60 percent of stations on the ChargePoint network are free to use

http://www.chargepoint.com/news/201...epoint-as-e-golf-charging-solution-providers/

So technically he wasn't lying, but to say "free" leaves out important context. This 60% number has gone down quite a bit I'm sure, and furthermore "free to use" could include private ones at say offices and universities.

Free chargers attract freeloaders. Freeloaders are the ones that will try to yank the plug out of your locked 2015 Golf LE or SEL, or 2016 SEL. I have no desire for others to be tampering with my locked charger handle and trying to remove it by twisting or any other damaging methods instead of using the unlock button on the keyfob.


2016 SEs recharge pretty slow, like about 3.1 to 3.0 kw at 208 to 200V. All the 2015's and the 2016 SEL have 7.2kw charger packs on board, if you can find 240v outlets commercially at 30 amps. Most commercial outlets run 208v or less.

ACtually when I got my car I got a free nEVGO card as well as a Free Chargepoint card.
However the EVGO card came with 60 days of free charging. Maybe that's what the dealer mixed up?