Charging and Shopping

I know of two chargers that I can use when shopping. One of these costs 2 CHF just to connect, and then the cost of the charge. At the second shopping centre I can plug in for five minutes, or two and a half hours and I will only pay for the charge. Not having a connection fee makes the cheaper option more attractive.

If people want to charge quickly they have four fast chargers outdoors, by McDonald’s but if people want to charge slowly then they have the cheaper indoor parking chargers.

I find myself torn. On the one hand I think that the slow chargers are excellent because they’re cheap, but on the other you block the charger for others, for hours, potentially.

I noticed that the parking itself has a 2hr recommended stay limit but I don’t know whether this applies to people that park to charge. To charge from thirty percent takes about an hour and a half so I have half an hour extra to top up the charge beyond eighty percent.

Usually I notice that cars park for what seems like a shorter time than I do when charging, so I feel that I should follow their example. Yesterday I noticed that another car was parked and charging for longer than I was. I don’t know what charging etiquette is.

Can we charge to full? Are we meant to charge for as long as we are "shopping"? In a place like Signy Centre I charge until full because of the 2CHF connection fee but also because there are six or more charging points. If I take a charging point for 3 hours that’s fine.

At Porte de Nyon you have two charging points, so if two people block them for two hours then 12 cars can charge per day, in theory.

With fast chargers the rules are simple. The first hour is free at 59 centimes per KWh (at the time of writing), but once you’ve had your hour it costs 25 centimes per minute over that time to stay connected.

While browsing I noticed that at Jumbo in Yverdon you can charge at 29 centimes per kWh but that from four hours on it’s 4 CHF per hour.

Summary

I am toying with the idea of replacing one shopping centre with another because I can charge the car every time I go, rather than using another one that has a 2 CHF connection fee, no matter how much I charge. I worry about hogging the charger for too long but I don’t think there are rules.

Fast chargers want you to be quick but slow chargers encourage you to stay until the car is charged, especially those with a connection fee.

Although battery charge does not have a physical weight it is recommended to charge the battery to eighty percent to avoid ageing a battery prematurely.

And Finally

By having EV chargers shopping centres and cinemas will attract more people. Balexert has 20 chargers on one floor in the parking. This means that 20 cars at at a time can charge. Come with a low charge, watch a film and then return home with a full charge. If charging prices are low enough the need for a home charger is diminished.