Letter writing campaign to malls and shopping centers

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brentcd

New member
Joined
Jul 2, 2014
Messages
4
I've tried looking here and hope I'm not duplicating anything, but I wonder how a grassroots letter writing campaign might work to get additional charging stations installed.
This isn't my forte necessarily, though I have mailed and emailed several malls and shopping centers around where I live asking them to consider installing electric charging stations.
Has anyone here tried this or something similar? Everything friendly and positive, of course. These charging stations are of course the future, I wonder if we on this forum can help accelerate that happening.
Any suggestions for a well worded form letter would be appreciated.
 
Most of the deals I'm familiar with here in San DIego require a provider to bring the hardware, pay the electric bill, and bill drivers. The mall leases them the parking places and they come to an agreement about signage / striping and other operational issues.

There aren't very many property owners or managers who will pay for everything and go into the charging business...
 
The ROI won't be immediate, and that's why there are tax credits available for the installation of charging stations.

http://www.cleanvehiclescoalition.org/news.php?item.17.4" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

You also have to consider the ROI of having happy customers returning to your mall. At this point it will be a small percentage of the customers, but that number will just continue to increase over the years.
 
TomT said:
Nor, really, should they. There is simply no ROI in it.

Randy said:
There aren't very many property owners or managers who will pay for everything and go into the charging business...
What's the ROI on a parking lot? Lights? Drinking fountain? Well, back on topic, yes I've sent emails and called a couple of malls. I've even spoken to the local manager of our mall. Unfortunately, their hands are tied by the national owner (Simons I think) who is negotiating nationally with various station providers. Most likely this means they are negotiating in the bigger cities (especially CA), which means that out here in Sticksville, it will be a decade or better before our mall has charging. My best efforts have been at small businesses where I have actually spent money. Many of these seem to see the benefit (although several have their heads in the sand or say "in the future").
 
You may come to realize that having your own "self sufficient" home charging EVSE is all you'll ever need. And what really helps in that regard is having your own solar energy system installed at your residence as well. With the latter, you may never need to pay anyone else for any electric power including that needed to keep your EV(s) charged. Having EVSEs installed at the Mall or at work is all well and good, especially if you are an apartment dweller, but if self-sufficient at home, there really may never be a need for using ANY public charging stations, unless of course, on a trip out of town in your EV.

The local Mall near me, just installed a couple of L2 EVSEs in the parking garage. My wife and I go to this mall almost on a weekly basis, but I have no need to charge my EV while parked there. Those EVSEs are NOT free! They are charging a monthly subscription fee to use them. Even if they were free, I don't want to compete with other EVs to use them. It makes no sense to use public charging stations, when I can simply charge my EV at home and essentially at no cost (with a solar system on the roof). :mrgreen:
 
dsinned said:
It makes no sense to use public charging stations, when I can simply charge my EV at home and essentially at no cost (with a solar system on the roof). :mrgreen:
. True, unless you need to charge to get home or to your next destination, and I think the more the public infrastructure grows the more EVs will become a viable option for more people.
 
Publius said:
dsinned said:
It makes no sense to use public charging stations, when I can simply charge my EV at home and essentially at no cost (with a solar system on the roof). :mrgreen:
. True, unless you need to charge to get home or to your next destination, and I think the more the public infrastructure grows the more EVs will become a viable option for more people.

+1

While I'm quite happy living within my range now, I suspect that in a couple years I'll be needing a boost to get home more often...
 
aarond12 said:
The ROI won't be immediate, and that's why there are tax credits available for the installation of charging stations.

http://www.cleanvehiclescoalition.org/news.php?item.17.4" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

You also have to consider the ROI of having happy customers returning to your mall. At this point it will be a small percentage of the customers, but that number will just continue to increase over the years.
I agree and have stopped shopping at the mall in Northbrook, IL where Whole Foods disconnected their chargers.

The mall manager knows of this and said the chargers are owned by Whole Foods who is apparently looking for a better service provider than Charge Point, but I don't see them "looking" very hard.
 

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