Please Sign Petition For Costco To Install Charging Stations

[Moof]

Not signing. Limping between level 2 sites during the day will be a short lived phenomena. In another few years cars will have enough range to cover daily needs for 99% of drivers. Level 2 stations at stores will wither and die with a few notable exceptions.

 

[TomT]

+1

Not signing. Limping between level 2 sites during the day will be a short lived phenomena. In another few years cars will have enough range to cover daily needs for 99% of drivers. Level 2 stations at stores will wither and die with a few notable exceptions.

 

[UBUYGAS]

No Problem. But can you promise that if you are at 3% battery you won't stop at Costco in the future and use their charging stations?

I mean that's only fair right?

If you don't want to help out then please stay away from any Costco Chargers.

after Costco we are going after other companies.

I'll make sure to give you a list so that you don't go near those at well.

Does that sound OK?

Not signing. Limping between level 2 sites during the day will be a short lived phenomena. In another few years cars will have enough range to cover daily needs for 99% of drivers. Level 2 stations at stores will wither and die with a few notable exceptions.

 

[UBUYGAS]

..............

 

[abasile]

Thank you, Sal. I just signed the petition, having in years past left comments at the store. With L2 charging, two Costco locations would be in range for our LEAF. Currently, every Costco location is beyond our single-charge round-trip range.

Being a private business, Costco of course has no obligation to install charging. But I hope they choose to make it company policy to install EV infrastructure at all stores. At the very least, their employees could use it. Not everyone is going to have a brand-new EV with 200+ miles of range.

 

[UBUYGAS]

Thanks Abasile!

Thank you, Sal. I just signed the petition, having in years past left comments at the store. With L2 charging, two Costco locations would be in range for our LEAF. Currently, every Costco location is beyond our single-charge round-trip range.

Being a private business, Costco of course has no obligation to install charging. But I hope they choose to make it company policy to install EV infrastructure at all stores. At the very least, their employees could use it. Not everyone is going to have a brand-new EV with 200+ miles of range.

 

[user 10599]

Signed it. Thanks for putting that together.

 

[smkettner]

Not signing. Limping between level 2 sites during the day will be a short lived phenomena. In another few years cars will have enough range to cover daily needs for 99% of drivers. Level 2 stations at stores will wither and die with a few notable exceptions.

Should the $1.50 dog/soda and the $5 baked chicken also die? No they will not because it drives traffic into the store.... same as low cost L2 could do.

 

[cwerdna]

Should the $1.50 dog/soda and the $5 baked chicken also die? No they will not because it drives traffic into the store.... same as low cost L2 could do.

At the Costcos I go to, I don't think they need any more traffic. They're a zoo on weekends so I avoid them on weekends.

For some Costcos, w/nothing else to go to around them, yeah, it might be a slight draw, but the EV and PHEV national take rate is very low, unfortunately (see http://www.hybridcars.com/may-2015-dashboard/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false.

For others, where there are plenty of other retail businesses around, folks might just charge for cheap at their local Costco and go to some other businesses. https://www.google.com/maps/place/Costco+Wholesale/@37.253199,-121.880259,17z/data=!3m2!4b1!5s0x808e33e79fa63ef3:0x7edf0a3af73a2e85!4m2!3m1!1s0x808e33e79d9288b7:0xde43504474f0dab2" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; is an example.

 

[mbender]

Not signing. Limping between level 2 sites during the day will be a short lived phenomena. In another few years cars will have enough range to cover daily needs for 99% of drivers. Level 2 stations at stores will wither and die with a few notable exceptions.

No Problem. But can you promise that if you are at 3% battery you won't stop at Costco in the future and use their charging stations?

Plus, the chargers wouldn't be for people who "limp between level 2 sites", any more than the hotdog+soda or chicken are for hungry cheapskates limping between meals, or than the "room temperature" and shelter is for people who might lack them.

They'd be for members who, while shopping anyway, would be really pleased to come back to a vehicle (even a 200-mile EV) with 25-50 more miles "in it" than when they parked!

Putting in chargers would probably just be a good business move (for other reasons, as well): garnering attention/free publicity, making a "statement", and giving a small perk (perq?) to a small but growing percentage of their customers. They might even find -- and no doubt they'd be able to determine this -- that shoppers who get access to a plug end up spending more time and money in-store than they otherwise would. It's odd the psychological effect that "free" has on people! So for that reason, too, it would probably be a good business decision. But then again, I and we are a bit biased.

The one reason I can see that might make them hesitant though, is a fear of alienating a (misinformed) segment of the population that is, effectively, "anti-EV". And we know that they are out there. However, the existence of our pro-EV 'crowd' doesn't seem to hold them back from selling cheap gasoline* :-\ . Hopefully, as EVs become more popular and their benefits become more obvious, well-known and accepted, their calculus regarding gasoline vs. electric "member benefits" will change accordingly.

* Maybe we should get on their case about that(!), suggesting that they are implicitly or indirectly contributing to the pollution and warming of the planet. So maybe when the numbers of both the EV-drivers and "petroleum questioning" groups get a little bigger, someone on their board will convince the rest that doing this nationwide is a no-brainer!

 

[Moof]

No Problem. But can you promise that if you are at 3% battery you won't stop at Costco in the future and use their charging stations?

I mean that's only fair right?

If you don't want to help out then please stay away from any Costco Chargers.

after Costco we are going after other companies.

I'll make sure to give you a list so that you don't go near those at well.

Does that sound OK?

Not signing. Limping between level 2 sites during the day will be a short lived phenomena. In another few years cars will have enough range to cover daily needs for 99% of drivers. Level 2 stations at stores will wither and die with a few notable exceptions.

One is 1.5 miles from my house, another is 5 miles away. I would rather they keep prices lower than put in level 2 stations that will barely get used. Level 2 public stations make sense for home, work, and public parking structures, very little elsewhere. We need cars with proper range, and they are coming.

Even now I would argue that the vast majority of Leaf owners charge less than a couple times a month on level 2 away from home and work. Bigger batteries will make this even more overwhelming and we will see many of these slow charge stations go away from disuse over time even as more EV's hit the road.

 

[TomT]

+1

The Costcos are 4.5 miles, 6.5 miles, 8.5 miles and 9 miles away from home in my case, all in different directions...

One is 1.5 miles from my house, another is 5 miles away. I would rather they keep prices lower than put in level 2 stations that will barely get used. Level 2 public stations make sense for home, work, and public parking structures, very little elsewhere. We need cars with proper range, and they are coming.

Even now I would argue that the vast majority of Leaf owners charge less than a couple times a month on level 2 away from home and work. Bigger batteries will make this even more overwhelming and we will see many of these slow charge stations go away from disuse over time even as more EV's hit the road.

 

[oxo]

At our Costco they had a few EV parking spots that were supposed to have chargers. They never put the chargers in or enforced the parking spot from the ICE poachers. Then they put in a green cone which helped keep the ICE cars out but then a few months later all of a sudden they just took the signs down, the cones away and now they have NO EV parking spots, let alone chargers. We are not happy about it on Maui!

 

[mbender]

One is 1.5 miles from my house, another is 5 miles away. I would rather they keep prices lower than put in level 2 stations that will barely get used. Level 2 public stations make sense for home, work, and public parking structures, very little elsewhere. We need cars with proper range, and they are coming.

Even now I would argue that the vast majority of Leaf owners charge less than a couple times a month on level 2 away from home and work. Bigger batteries will make this even more overwhelming and we will see many of these slow charge stations go away from disuse over time even as more EV's hit the road.

-1...

• Tell me that if there were one or two dozen specially-marked "ICE" parking spots, which promised a gallon or two of gasoline would be added to cars that park in them, that people wouldn't covet those spots. Of course they would! And I think they would due to perceived value as much or more than actual value. As I said above, I think the good PR (all about perception) would more than compensate for the infinitesimal difference it would make in their bottom line.
  
  
• You can't be serious about the implication that putting in chargers would result in higher prices. For a $60 billion dollar company with less than 700 stores? Not sure what else to say. I think their ceilings are too high. Makes them way over-spend on HVAC.

 

[mbender]

This just in...

• German supermarket chain installs solar-powered DC charging stations
  
  

  The German-based discount supermarket chain Aldi, in partnership with electric utility RWE, opened a public DC charging station at a store in Dusseldorf in May. Charging is free, and energy is generated from solar panels installed on the building.
  
  The new installation uses the QC20 charging station from Portuguese electrical equipment manufacturer Efacec. The QC20 is a compact unit that delivers “semi-fast charging” at 20 kW. It features multi-standard capability, and can be integrated directly into any network.
  
  The Dusseldorf station is the first of 50 locations that Aldi plans to install within the month in German cities including Frankfurt, Cologne, Munich and Stuttgart.

  (all emphasis added)

"Aldi" is the owner of Trader Joe's, by the way. Just imagine if they brought this to the U.S... 20kW is perfect -- a nearly complete "fill-up" during an average trip to the grocery store -- and free and solar-generated are just cherries on top. If they put this in place near me, it might even cause me redirect some of my grocery $ back to them (ironically or/and more on-point, away from Costco).

Perhaps another petition is needed now: one that asks Aldi to do in the U.S. at Trader Joe's what they are doing at their grocery stores in Europe.

 

[UBUYGAS]

Very Cool!

This just in...

• German supermarket chain installs solar-powered DC charging stations
  
  

  The German-based discount supermarket chain Aldi, in partnership with electric utility RWE, opened a public DC charging station at a store in Dusseldorf in May. Charging is free, and energy is generated from solar panels installed on the building.
  
  The new installation uses the QC20 charging station from Portuguese electrical equipment manufacturer Efacec. The QC20 is a compact unit that delivers “semi-fast charging” at 20 kW. It features multi-standard capability, and can be integrated directly into any network.
  
  The Dusseldorf station is the first of 50 locations that Aldi plans to install within the month in German cities including Frankfurt, Cologne, Munich and Stuttgart.

  (all emphasis added)

"Aldi" is the owner of Trader Joe's, by the way. Just imagine if they brought this to the U.S... 20kW is perfect -- a nearly complete "fill-up" during an average trip to the grocery store -- and free and solar-generated are just cherries on top. If they put this in place near me, it might even cause me redirect some of my grocery $ back to them (ironically or/and more on-point, away from Costco).

Perhaps another petition is needed now: one that asks Aldi to do in the U.S. at Trader Joe's what they are doing at their grocery stores in Europe.

 

[ishiyakazuo]

"Aldi" is the owner of Trader Joe's, by the way.

Not exactly. There are two Aldi companies, owned by brothers. The one who is doing this is Aldi South, which is the same as US Aldi. Aldi North is a different company, owned by the same family as Trader Joe's.

 

[mbender]

Thank you for the clarification, but there is still hope. I love the idea/reality of 20kW stations, which I had never come across before. They are perfect for this kind of application: grocery stores, retail shopping (centers), theaters, etc. I just hope that the idea becomes a reality, and then spreads, here in the US.

ps. I knew there were two Aldis, but I would have guessed that the one operating in Germany was Aldi North. Apparently I would have guessed wrong, though! :shock: Ah, this explains it all; should have known to check Wikipedia first!!

"Aldi" is the owner of Trader Joe's, by the way.

Not exactly. There are two Aldi companies, owned by brothers. The one who is doing this is Aldi South, which is the same as US Aldi. Aldi North is a different company, owned by the same family as Trader Joe's.

 

[ishiyakazuo]

Thank you for the clarification, but there is still hope. I love the idea/reality of 20kW stations, which I had never come across before. They are perfect for this kind of application: grocery stores, retail shopping (centers), theaters, etc. I just hope that the idea becomes a reality, and then spreads, here in the US.

ps. I knew there were two Aldis, but I would have guessed that the one operating in Germany was Aldi North. Apparently I would have guessed wrong, though! :shock: Ah, this explains it all; should have known to check Wikipedia first!!

To be honest, Trader Joe's and Aldi are the two places I shop the most, so I'm totally fine with either one of them getting charging stations. It's easy to spot the similarities between the two if you're looking for them (most notably in the multitudes of store-brands each carries).
I think the "north" and "south" in the names actually refer to the regions of Germany, but I could be wrong on that bit. When I was in Germany for a time, I only came across the Süd(South) ones, but I was in the southern regions of Germany, so that makes sense

 

[dan2112]

Our Costco is so busy on the weekend and at night unless the chargers were at the far end of the parking lot or way in the back, there is no way you would find a non-iced spot. There would literally have to be a Costco employee policing the spots to keep them from being ICEd.