Isn’t LH basically this exact same scenario? Spend 30 hours grinding out a lease to save $12 a month for 24 months.
Sometimes the hunt is the payoff itself, not the money.
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For me, no.
Same for EA. I paid $8 for 32 KWH last time I DCFC’d. Why tf would I go to EA to spend an unknowable amount of time waiting in line to save $8
The times I go to Costco I hardly wait at all for gas and I was gonna be there anyway. If EA were the equivalent of that (plug in, run some errands and come back to the car, leave) that would be fine but waiting in line in your car just to plug in sounds like a nightmare.
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To be fair, where I charge I have things I can do too, eat, run errands etc.
Or I just sit in my car and read LH, stream or have a meal. I remember when Costco lines could take 20 minutes… imagine if someone could wait in the gas line for you and fill it up while you went Costco for 30 minutes, wouldn’t that be better?
It’s all relative.
Once my current leases end, no more free DCFC so I will probably charge at home more but will hit up a DCFC if I need a fill up charge that is quick compared to L1/L2.
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The value of time thing is a little misused. OK so you waste 30 mins in line to save $6 or whatever. Your time is worth more than $12 an hour!!! Yeah it is, theoretically. But let’s be real here. It’s not like that time would otherwise be used to earn $200. Most likely you’d just spend an extra 1/2 an hour down a youtube rabbit hole on the mating habits of African bees or some shit.
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I’ve purposely designed my life / career to make sure that I can’t monetize every single hour, or I would, and I probably would have worked myself to death by now.
That said, if I’m not doing an errand while the car is charging at EA, I’m instead doing what I’d otherwise be doing at home… sitting in a work meeting on Teams, doing the day’s NYTXW on my iPad, etc.
It’s not like I’m just sitting there staring into the sky, waiting for time to pass.
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I’m actually super productive when at an EA station. I normally charge mid-day during the week and, accordingly, bring my work laptop with me and hammer out a lot of busy work. Find myself more productive in the car than in the office actually! The stations I go to are normally never maxed out so I’m ‘that guy’ that charges to 100%… while getting a lot of work done (unless someone is waiting 
). Can’t complain!
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Unlike EA charging, going to costco for gas is part of my weekly grocery trip. While I’m on the line for gas, my wife is inside doing the shopping. Sure, waiting in line is annoying, but I’m already there. Unfortunately, I dont have my own cheaper gas station at home where I can fill up anytime 
.
I dont bother with free ea because I have to carve out a specific time to go there. It’s not part of my daily route. It cost me in leased miles n time n by the time you calculate both, I probably only save $3-4 vs charging at home. Not worth it.
I’m the same with EA. The ones around me are all at Walmart or another regional Walmart like super market chain. I try to time it so if I need free juice from EA, I’ll go when I need to pick up some items anyway.
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Every time someone lists out all the things they can do while waiting, it reminds me of sitting in traffic in the passenger/back seat.
Sure there are ways to make that time “productive” but as a choice? Hellll no.
I get what you’re saying, but you shift tasks you would normally do to time spent in a vehicle waiting to charge.
Like trism said… taking a Teams call… I’ve spent a few sessions joining Teams calls. Getting lunch… do I sit in a fast/casual food place or just sit in my car?
Sometimes my wife has to go to Target or some store near a charger… I drop her off, charge and watch some game and then pick her up (like 9benua).
When you chose to drive an EV, you also make that choice to incorporate how to spend charging time. You can just charge at home while you’re sleeping (can’t do that with ICE), you can fill in time while fast charging (both while waiting and charging) and you can plan your time with the EA app and knowing the usage/wait times for chargers near you.
And sometimes… it’s nice to get out of the house and just charge and chill for a while.
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Max, that’s quite surprising to hear from you of all people considering the amount of time you spend here on LH. Does it really matter to you whether you do it from your couch, desk or your car at EA?
I always have hundreds of emails to catch up on, things I need or want to read, phone calls to make, etc. Fire up those massaging seats (something I don’t have in my home) and time goes by quite fast!
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I always wondered, what do the Amish think when they see someone filling up a car at the gas station… is it the same reaction as EV charging/wasting time 
when you could just get the livestock and GO GO GO HeeHaw
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They’re on the Haypile America network.
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Interesting, it shows you what it would have cost. Mine always says $0 for Audi free charging.
I agree, I just time-shift activities. I get some steps in while charging. And now that it’s been cold in NC for a few weeks and charging takes much longer, I get more steps in so it’s a win/win. 1.5-2 miles during a 30 minute EA session, up to 3-4 miles during a 60 minute EVGo session (the Ariya is always slow to charge, but even the GV60 has been really slow when temp is 30 compared to 60). I have noticed the longer charge times are leading to more lines as people dont cycle through as quickly. [And yes, I sometimes see the same Bolts plugged into the 350kW EVGo charger near my house.]
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Yep… we have a few congestion EA chargers (only to 85%) a little farther than my normal chargers but I go to those if I’m in the area and I know I don’t have a lot of waiting time.
I wish the chargers closer to me were congestion chargers.
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I got the CF roof. 
It seems like every time I try to get some kind of fast charging from a low SoC, like 10% or something like that, it never works? The best it will do is sit at 50-70kw from 10% to about 35%, then pick up to 100-150 to about 75% and down to 100kw until 90%. Am I just not pre-conditioning the battery enough? The one time I did get over 200kw, it was from about 35% but I had been driving around for an hour or so before hand. I don’t think it’s the charger’s problem, this is all at the same station and the one time I got 200, it was when the station was full, so I don’t think it was because other cars were slowing me down, meanwhile a few times when I was just there by myself it didn’t get any faster either.
The drive from my house to the EA is about 12 miles, is that not enough for preconditioning?
How do you know you are preconditioning? It is different in every car.