10,000 California Charging Stations Funded

[Norbert]

^^
Well, yes, that's why the settlement amount is $120million instead of some much lower number, had NRG been required to write a check as customer rebates (which it did for $20 million). .

That's what I thought at first.

This settlement is a win/win/win for California ratepayers, EV drivers, and NRG. I may not be Elon Musk that I can invest pots of my own money to move the ball on EVs, but I'm delighted that I can help a client do so.

How will they decide about the details? Are they already decided, but those details not made public yet, are there vague plans, or is it all open? Which kinds of fast chargers are under discussion? Or is it all left to NRG to decide by themselves in the future, and no one knows what they are going to do?

[mcornwell]

From a San Diegan who has a P reservation, and a wife who will be picking up her Volt tomorrow, Thanks Robert!

I'm delighted to say that I did a lot of work for NRG in support of getting this settlement across the finish line. Very good news for the EV community!

There is some additional detail about the settlement in NRG's press release .

[Norbert]

According to this article:
California settles energy crisis lawsuit, enabling NRG to build electric car charging network

eVgo is a subsidiary of NRG:
All About Electric Vehicles | Charging Docks Stations

Reads like their current fast charger is CHAdeMO (at least primarily). Though they could come up with something new, as well, I guess.

[Norbert]

Using the fast chargers seems to require monthly fee of $79 (which includes home charging equipment with a three year service agreement or so).

EDIT: And their idea seems to be to have many fast chargers at different points in a few large cities. So far.

[dadaleus]

Chelsea Sexton (respected EV advocate) has come out very critical of this settlement. The chargers will apparently cost $10-15 to use for a charge, which presumably is based on a Leaf type capacity (so ~$40 for a 300 mile S or Roadster?). That puts it at about a 1000% profit margin vs. the electricity cost if I'm thinking about this right.

That said, maybe it's still good to have more options if you need it. But it does seem like the $120mil figure is a sham given what Robert.Boston says above. If that was real money we'd be paying for the stations and then paying a huge profit again on the charge.

[Norbert]

That said, maybe it's still good to have more options if you need it. But it does seem like the $120mil figure is a sham given what Robert.Boston says above. If that was real money we'd be paying for the stations and then paying a huge profit again on the charge.

I guess we don't know if what they are planning for CA is similar to their Texas plans. I guess it is an exaggeration to call it a $120 million settlement, since as Robert says the cash amount would have been much smaller. So it is difficult to tell whether that's a good deal or not, for CA. But still, it is a $120 million value even if that is in part an investment of NRG in its eVgo network.

The executive order which VFX posted seems serious, so I have a rather good impression about this. Even if I'm not the biggest CHAdeMO fan, and would prefer if at least 50 of those were Superchargers (and that SAE would make Superchargers standard for DC).

[Robert.Boston]

If you read the settlement carefully, a big chunk of the money is going to pre-wire 1,000 locations for up to 10,000 EVSE/chargers. That's infrastructure spend that NRG is making with no guarantee that their EVGo network will be chosen to do the EVSE/charger installation afterwards.

The settlement's surely not a sham -- NRG would possibly have been investing some (much smaller) figure in EVGo in California, and it's possible that they will even see some earnings based on the investment. But IMO it's still a big move forward for EVs in CA. Naturally politicians want to make the most of the settlement as possible.

Hopefully I can nudge my client to invest in some 'tween chargers to get EVs out to the wilds of CA.

[efusco]

What’s it cost? Electric car charging rates
$49 home
$79 mobile
$89 "complete"
And those prices are if you "lock in" for 3 months. Not sure how much they'll be after that.

While I praise the idea of such an extensive network, it seems that this should be either free or some sort of cost + marginal profit based upon actual kWh used.

[jerry33]

The cost includes the EVSE and installation, so it's not quite the bad deal it seems--although it's close.

[bonnie1194]

Hopefully I can nudge my client to invest in some 'tween chargers to get EVs out to the wilds of CA.

Let us know if there is anything we can do to help with that nudging.