Rivian Working on Sustainable Fast Chargers

Was it in Texas? I heard electricity is very expensive there.

@Inside Looking Out No, Connecticut, where I pay $.0725/kwh at home. This particular EVgo charger is supposed to charge at 50kw, and the Bolt has DC charging, but obviously that didn't work out yesterday. People in CT are always crying about expensive electricity. Is $.0725/kwh expensive?

@dwford 7 cents a kWh is practically free. Anyone’s who complains about that is a pathetic whiner.

@dwford National average is $.12~.13/kwh. Public charging is either a rip off or a huge rip off depending on where you are at and what provider you are at. Some of it is the provider and how they charge but a lot of that depends on the laws in a given state. Some states say you can't charge by the kwh, only power companies can do that. So in those states you must charge by time. Some have tiers based on the charger's output, but it isn't really based on the output but is based on what the car tells the station its peak charge rate is. If if you are in a state where they can charge you by the kwh that price is typically 3-4 times the rate you would pay at home in that area.

@Imagefont The problem in CT is that the "delivery fee" and all the other fees more than double the bill. If I spend $50 on actual electricity I spend another $80 on fees

@Scoutdude In Bay area CA we pay about 30 cents per kwh which includes delivery fee.

@Scoutdude That's steep. $0.30/kWh is about the same as what it would cost to go on a gallon of gas (currently ~$3.30). Doesn't seem worth the EV premium, as well as the general hassle of charging versus just filling-up.

@Scoutdude "general hassle of charing versus just filling up" The general hassle is filling up, not charging, as long as you're lucky enough to be able to install a L2 charger at home. I have to find time every few weeks to take my Highlander to the gas station, which is out of the way of my usual trips. No such hassle exists with my Bolt.

@Scoutdude Can't deny that a home Level 2 EVSE tips the scales in favor of an EV, at least in the convenience sense. Financial? Not so much, particularly if the residence is located in the Bay Area...

@Scoutdude Still cheaper than California gas per mile. Here in a place with a functional utility, I pay a raw price of 11¢/kWh, or somewhere around 15-16¢/kWh after all fees. The fuel cost for the Bolt is around 4 cents/mile, while the fuel cost for the Highlander is about three times that. And that's before we get into the very different maintenance requirements.

@Inside Looking Out I live in the Dallas area and I get a weekly email regarding my electric bill (Green Mountain Energy). I pay approximately 11 cents a kWh with all fees, all in. I consider that very cheap.

@Scoutdude On the flip side, I drove from Alabama to Maryland last week in a rental Expedition EX-L (3 people and lots of equipment). With its tank size we only stopped once for fuel and Taco Bell and were back on the road in about 20 minutes. Our hotel has no charger. I dare say this would be a considerably more aggravating trip in an EV likely requiring us to leave a day earlier. I do this sort of trip fairly regularly and have no desire to extend already long trips. Incidentally this is my first trip with the expedition. We usually get an Armada but stepped up size wise due to the extra person this time. The Suburban with Captains Chairs we got before was nice as well, but the Expedition rode much better, though I think that was a last gen Suburban. Even when we go back to flying I can only recall one place (Sierra Vista, Fort Huachuka) where the hotel had a charger.