[ItsNotAboutTheMoney]

DEAR SEMACONNECT
,

IF YOU HAVE A SM
ALL DISPLAY ON Y

OUR CHARGERS, AN
D THE MESSAGE KE

EPS CHANGING IT
IS VERY DIFFICUL

T TO ENABLE A CH
ARGING SESSION B

Y PHONE, AND IT
MAKES THE CONVEN

IENCE FEE IRONIC
. AND TERMINAL.


It would have been my first paid public charging. We were staying at a hotel. My wife had booked the room. I hadn't checked ahead of time, but at check-in I asked about charging. $1 per hour, so expensive given only 3.3kW charging, but infrastructure costs etc, so I was going to charge anyway. But the charger design made the process of enabling by credit so tedious that after it mentioned the convenience fee I honestly couldn't stand the irony so I stopped and went inside.

 

[danieljw]

Ugh, so timely. I have one of these chargers at my apartment and it's mindnumbing.

You know what else is nuts? That $1/hour charge you were talking about -- it continues so long as the car is plugged in, regardless of whether charging is complete.

 

[voganni]

Unless public charging is free or by the kwh and reasonable, it's not worth it in a Volt. At least not until gas gets to 4 bucks/gal again.

 

[ItsNotAboutTheMoney]

Ugh, so timely. I have one of these chargers at my apartment and it's mindnumbing.

You know what else is nuts? That $1/hour charge you were talking about -- it continues so long as the car is plugged in, regardless of whether charging is complete.

Well, if you're plugged in, others can't use it so it makes sense to have a "parking" fee. But the variable power use and demand charges, combined with laws restricting electricity resale, make costing chargers challenging. I hope that state laws change in the future and allow charging companies to pass on electricity costs so that the chargers can increase volume through increased appeal to PHEV owners.

I had assumed it would be a parking fee, and I understood that charging would be relatively expensive (although not insanely expensive given that we did some local driving the next day that was inefficient on the engine).

Since I've never used a public charger, I didn't plan ahead, otherwise I might have tried their Android app. But the app is rated 1.8* with users commenting about problems like a credit card expiration field that gives an error that the date doesn't include a day.

Although I think it's good to support public charging, I also don't want to support an inept company.

 

[ctiomico2003]

One of the Costco's nearby uses SemaConnect and it is absolutely horrid. The app they have is useless and I finally got a card but the stations are just so confusing.

I wish they would have used Chargepoint but of course they did not.

So your pain is felt!

 

[PilotWashburne]

One of the Costco's nearby uses SemaConnect and it is absolutely horrid. The app they have is useless and I finally got a card but the stations are just so confusing.

I wish they would have used Chargepoint but of course they did not.

So your pain is felt!

Has this gotten better? I'm thinking of installing one of these at my condo. It's cheaper than Chargepoint, both in monthly fees and the hardware. They don't nickle-and-dime you like chargepoint either. Charger, optional cable management and monthly service fee - that's it. No stupid inspection fee. No additional software licenses.

 

[jcanoe]

I use the SemaConnect network of Level 2 charging stations. I opted for the wallet size card instead of the app because reviews of the app said it was terrible. Also, cellular reception inside of garages might make it impossible to use the app. The card works fine, sometimes I have to wave the card a second time before the charging session is started.

My history with Sema includes fee based charging at $0.20/kWh. This works out to ~$0.65 per hour. My home charging costs are ~$0.16/kWh so in this case fee based charging was not outrageously expensive. I would charge on the Sema charger for approx 1 hr and this would enable me to complete my ~60 mile round trip in EV mode only in winter when my EV range was lower than at other times of the year.

I also use a Sema charger at a local shopping plaza that has a number of restaurants, Harris Teeter and a gym. At this location the EV charging is free so I try and take advantage of an hour of free electricity whenever I am there. There are 2 free Sema chargers, initially one was not working. I contacted Sema and sent them an email with a photo of the failed charger including model and serial number. Sema followed up and advised me that because the charger was paid for by the property management company for the shopping plaza they would have to find out if the landlord wanted to fix the charger. It took about a month but eventually the Sema charger was repaired. Overall I am a satisfied SemaConnect customer.