They stop charging your battery, but they may or may not stop charging you depending on their rate structure. (i.e. per hour, or per kWh).

 

I have found that some blink stations will continue to hit you wallet after the car is fully charged. Now when I left my car at the airport chargepoint did not.

 

The EVSE (Electric Vehicle Supply Equipment) doesn't "charge" the battery. Each EV has an onboard AC to DC converter and battery charger that monitors the pack voltage and temperature with built-in sensors until its limits have been reached. Then the charger tells the EVSE to stop the AC supply. In few words, the EVSE (public or home installed) is an intelligent "extensionn" that communicates with the EV onboard charger using the SAE J1772 standard to prevent harm to the vehicle or the owner.

The onboard charger is what determines if the pack need a "trickle charge", and may cycle the EVSE on and off to supply AC power as needed. The pack temperature versus ambient temperature management is one arrangement where the EVSE may indeed cycle on and off to maintain an established battery temperature using the EV's built-in heating or cooling systems, and you willl get charged for its supply while connected to the EVSE.

In the future, when we have larger packs, probably over 40 kWh, we will need fast DC chargers and those will have their intelligence offboard, not in the EV, but connected to the same sensors inside the EV pack, because that external charger bypasses the smaller onboard charger.

 

For those that charge, they charge while you are plugged in whether the car is charging or not. Some will charge for a full hour if you go x minutes over. Some will charge a much higher rate after say 4 hours (encouraging you to unplug before then and move on). Buyer beware. Read the fine print.

 

Just to be clear, for those that charge per hour that is true, but not the ones that charge per kWh.

 

Most public charging staitons carge by time not energy use, so how they measure the time is what is important.

Some aperently use conection time and some actual charging time.

 

Thanks all. This is new to me, and am using a public charger for the first time down the street from my work.

Sounds like at a minimum I need to be there to unplug as soon as the charging is done.

 

Sounds like at a minimum I need to be there to unplug as soon as the charging is done.

That sounds like a good idea regardless of how much it will cost you. Other may want to use that charging station as well.

Just think of the children

 

Ok, got my 'charge complete' e-mail from Blink.

At the bottom they say 'Hourly fees are charged until you disconnect..Fees are rounded to the next hour with a 2 minute grace period at the beginning of each new hour'.

So at least for Blink, you get charged as long as you are plugged in. And have a 2 minute window to save yourself from being charged another hour.

As a side note, I have my OnStar setup to let me know when charging is complete, and it hasn't worked for days now for some reason.

 

Volt owners are screwed by charging stations that charge you by time plugged in. Other EVs like the Nissan Leaf and Tesla, charge at twice the rate of the Volt, so the Volt owner pays twice as much per Kwh. If a Volt uses the station for four hours at $1.00 per hour, it will pay $4.00 to go 40 miles. That's 2.5 times the average cost of charging at home. You might as well just use the ICE in that situation. Stations that charge by Kwh are more fair but could still be more expensive than running on gas. Free charge stations are great but hard to find.

 

Yet another reason why I loathe the "slow" 3.3 rate of the Volt's charger. It is a thorn in the side of an otherwise excellent car

 

Why did the Volt go with the 3.3kW charger? What is the downside of the 6.6kW charger? Will the next generation Volt have the 6.6kW charger and if so, will it reduce the charging time in half?

 

Why did the Volt go with the 3.3kW charger?

Because 4-hour charge times are more than adequate for a range extended EV.

What is the downside of the 6.6kW charger?

Higher cost. Larger. More weight.

Will the next generation Volt have the 6.6kW charger ...

Doubtful.

 

Most public EVSE's I run into are blocked by an SUV who parks in the spot... or is already in use. I seldom see one open. When I did try to use a Blink EVSE it cost more than gasoline! I just don't bother any more. I charge at home or I don't charge at all. Never trust em. And they are grossly over priced. I guess those who have a BEV are willing to pay for those outrageous rates so they can make it home. The Volt has no range issue... Cheaper to use the Volt's engine than any Blink EVSE I have run into.

 

I used a Chargepoint machine when I was in Las Vegas. As soon as the car was done charging, I received a text message saying that the car was drawing very little charge and was probably done charging. The charger was free so it didn't make a difference (I could see the charger from my room and I was the only car who used one of the two available spots all week!) but it did seem to imply that it would continue to pull some charge as long as it was plugged in. Being as hot as it was, it was nice to have it plugged in to use their electricity to keep cooling the battery. It was also nice to remote start it and get the cabin cool enough for my grandma to ride in comfortably.