Felix Cerezo
Updated Wednesday, January 31, 2024-10:36
Chargeable Electrical charging stations are only used for one hour a day
A few years ago, the few users who had a car with a plug
(whether 100% electric or plug-in hybrid) calmly accessed a shopping center with free charging stations and it was rare to find them busy. Today, it has become a race to be the fastest, which sometimes even leads to arguments between drivers.
Perhaps one of the paradigmatic cases is the one shown on the social network X (formerly Twitter) by the user Ardecabo.
In it he denounces what is happening in the center that El Corte Inglés has in the Madrid town of Pozuelo de Alarcón.
He says in the video that he opens his doors to the public at 10 in the morning and that three minutes later, all the (free) charging stations are already occupied, some by cars with the driver inside taking advantage of it to work. And other vehicles are waiting (they can be patient now) for some of those spaces to become free.
Rich, but not that rich
The location of this shopping center is not trivial. It
is located in the area of influence of the BUS-Vao of the A6,
a fast access lane to Madrid that can be used freely without the need to bring a companion if we have a car with a DGT ZERO label. That is, 100% electric or plug-in hybrids with a minimum range in electric mode of 40 km.
Secondly, it is an area with one of the highest levels of per capita income in the country,
with towns such as Pozuelo de Alarcón, Majadahonda or Las Rozas; and citizens with the capacity to purchase these vehicles, which are much more expensive. Or allow yourself to have them as the second or even third vehicle in the home.
The curious thing is that later,
those same users 'fight'
to save a few euros. Sometimes, not one.
The 'hated' PHEVs
Without going beyond the example of El Corte Inglés, which has free chargers in a large number of shopping centers throughout Spain (you can consult them here),
the standard power they offer is about 11 kW,
except for those specific to Tesla models that It can reach 22 kW. This means that, for
a car with a 60 kWh battery, which is beginning to be the standard, it will take many hours to fill it completely,
given that this speed is not constant and, as in mobile phones, it drops a lot once we reach the limit. 80% of capacity. That is why it is common for the car to remain empty while its owner takes the opportunity to do some shopping or simply kill time.
The issue is even more serious with plug-in hybrids (PHEV),
whose users are almost hated by those who have a 100% electric one.
Most PHEVs do not support more than 3.4 kW,
although some already offer 7.4 kW or more. That is to say, they are even much slower in their recharging and, on top of that, they waste a large part of the potential of the pole considering that it has 11 kW.
An average type battery today has about 60 kWh capacity
A full battery for less than two euros
And what do they save? Let's assume
the case of a PHEV with a battery of between 15 and 20 kWh capacity, which covers the majority of those on sale in Spain
. With a normal electricity rate at home, at about 15 euro cents per KW, it would be between
2.25 and three euros.
But there are nightly rates that can be contracted and that lower that price to three cents per kW. Or what is the same, we would be talking about between
45 and 60 cents.
Not even going every day is worth it, and that's without considering the opportunity cost of lost time.
Considering
the same figures for an electric car with a 60 kW battery, we would be talking about between 1.8 and nine euros for each complete battery.
In this case, it will be worthwhile for some to try their luck at least once a week, but they will hardly arrive with an empty battery and leave with it full, so the savings will be less.
company cars
But
what if we don't have anywhere to plug it in at home?
It does not seem logical to acquire one of these cars if this is the case, although it is not unusual to see PHEV models sleeping on the street.
They can perfectly well be company cars
that the worker chooses for the advantages of the ZERO label since
plug-in hybrids,
when the battery is empty, work with the combustion engine. Come on,
you can go months without recharging.
And those companies that impose this on their employees (usually managers), usually also provide them with a parking space at work with a plug.
Of course, there is always the alternative of using the public network offered by operators such as Endesa, Iberdrola, Repsol or Wenea.
In this case, the rates vary depending on the power of the pole we use. In one of up to 22 kW, it ranges between 0.29 and 0.45 euros per kW. If we go up to one that supports up to 50 kW, they would be between 0.39 and 0.60 euros; and from 0.44 euros to 0.65 in ultra-fast ones that give 100 kW or more. The cost of these recharges for an electric vehicle like the one we have given in the example (these posts do not make sense for a PHEV),
would range between 17.4 and 39 euros.
Other cases
Finally, although only one chain of large shopping centers has been mentioned here,
it is increasingly common for this type of establishment (and other restaurants such as McDonalds)
to offer recharging services, which in some cases are free and in others, they stop being so.
For example, the person writing this has a Mercadona
supermarket near his home
that, to begin with, had
several free charging points. They were always full
and there were even those who left their vehicle in the morning and returned several hours later to pick it up. Now that they have become paid, they are always empty.