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ChargePoint - new user education

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brianman

Burrito Founder
Nov 10, 2011
17,620
3,227
Just getting start scouting out ChargePoint's offerings. I requested a card a few weeks ago, finally activated it today.

In their "Find Stations" UI, what does "DC Fast" map to for Model S? More specifically, for Model S (a) is it compatible, (b) which adapter is used with the MC, and (c) what's the rate?

Update: No "DC Fast" shown in my state (yet?) (though Oregon has 3) so I guess this doesn't matter much in the near term.

What do the numbers indicate on the orange locations? They seem to range from 1 to 273.

Update: Ah, it's the number of stations. The large bubbles split to smaller ones as you zoom in.

It wasn't obvious to me from the map which (if any) are free locations to charge. Most of the results near me say "Estimated Cost $0" by I'm not clear whether that really means free or just means "math error, couldn't compute result."

They mention a mobile app available, but I didn't have luck finding it for Windows Phone. I presume that means it's not on WP platform yet. If I'm wrong, please assist in finding the app. In either case, any recommended apps for ChargePoint (and other charging stations) for Windows Phone are interesting. I installed "Charge Finder" but the reviews were somewhat negative; haven't taken it for a spin yet.

Whatever else you think a new person to ChargePoint should know, please feel free to share.

Thanks.
 
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Chargepoint's current "DC Fast" chargers are CHAdeMO units, meant for the Leaf and i-MiEV. They are usually around 48kW of power. Tesla is supposedly working on adapter, but has given no hint of price or schedule. They may offer other types (most likely the SAE version, which a Model S could use with a simple physical adapter) in the future.

Of the networked stations, I like Chargepoint the best. They've thought through a lot of the details, and tried to make things easy for both drivers and site hosts. Unlike some other networks, the site host sets the fee, and can choose to offer it for free. If the site host sets it up properly, you can reserve a charger. In any event, you can see if they are in service and/or in use. They have fewer issues with their network than other providers (although they do still have issues, and I don't think a network issue should ever come between a driver and getting a charge). They are the only one I know of that has an API to make it easy to put their stations in to other databases, and they've actually done some work to display other stations in their app.

But in general, if I need a charger, I want the nearest charger I can use - I don't generally care which network it's with. I do have the Chargepoint app on my phone just in case, but I generally use a more general station finder. There are dozens. Jcstp mentioned one; recargo and carstations also come to mind. I also like plugshare because that also lists people's homes, if they are willing to let others use their charger.